In England he held several jobs, including as a sub-editor at Reuters news agency (1964–1968), while developing his career as a writer, writing short stories for the BBC radio programme Caribbean Voices.

Four years later, Anthony published his first book, The Games Were Coming, a cycling story inspired by real events.

He eventually returned to Trinidad in 1970, after spending two years as part of the Trinidadian diplomatic corps in Brazil, where his novel King of the Masquerade is set, and he worked variously as an editor, a researcher for the Ministry of Culture, and as a radio broadcaster of historical programmes.

In his five-decade career, Anthony had over 30 titles published, including novels, collections of short fiction, books for younger readers, travelogues and histories.

[6] In 1979 Michael Anthony was awarded the Hummingbird Medal (Gold) for his contributions to literature, and he received an honorary doctorate from the University of the West Indies (UWI) in 2003.