Mike Smith

Chapel writer Mike Smith has lived in the Peak District for 25 years, but was born in Leeds and is a graduate of the University of Leeds, where he read Chemistry.

Mike spent 30 years as a secondary schoolteacher, including seven years as Head of Silverdale Comprehensive School in Sheffield.

Since his retirement from full-time teaching, he has written Tales from a Peak District Bookshop (A.L.D.), an account of his three idyllic years as the proprietor of a little antiquarian bookshop in Buxton ("like running a small literary club"), two volumes of Chapel-en-le-Frith in Old Picture Postcards (European Library Publications) and, most recently, Spirit of the High Peak (Landmark Publications), which tells the story of the twentieth century in the High Peak, with the aid of over 400 photographs featuring some 1,500 people who have helped to shape life in the region.

Mike is also the High Peak Correspondent of Living Edge, a lifestyle magazine covering Cheshire, Manchester, Staffordshire Moorlands and the High Peak.

He is always on the look out for good material for articles and would be pleased to hear from anyone who is involved in interesting ventures.

Mike Smith

Mike is the Chairman of Chapel-en-le-Frith Parish Council and Chair of the town’s well-dressing committee.


He is working hard, through the council, the Amenity Society and the town’s Regeneration Partnership on efforts to regenerate the old Capital of the Peak.


Mike’s other great love is France. He is the author of Vive la Difference (Caron Publications) and the Landmark Guide to the Dordogne. Currently, Mike is writing France for Channel Hoppers, also for Landmark Publications.