Stanley Trollip was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa. He obtained a PhD in Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Throughout his life, he has had a passion for wildlife and visits African game reserves as often as possible.

Since his retirement in 2003, he has written with Michael Sears under the name Michael Stanley. Their novels, featuring Detective Kubu, are set in Botswana, a fascinating country with magnificent conservation areas and varied peoples. The mysteries are set against current southern Africa issues such as the plight of the Bushman peoples of the Kalahari (Death of the Mantis won a Barry award and was shortlisted for Edgar and Anthony awards in 2011), the pervasive power of witch doctors (Deadly Harvest was shortlisted for an ITW Thriller award in 2014), blood diamonds, the growing Chinese influence, and biopiracy. The latest book in the series, Facets of Death, is a prequel.

They have also written a stand-alone thriller about rhino poaching and rhino-horn smuggling. It is called Shoot the Bastards (Dead of Night outside North America) and is set mainly in South Africa and Vietnam. The protagonist is investigative reporter, Crystal Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant to Minnesota.

Wolfman is Stanley's first solo novel and is a type of prequel to Shoot the Bastard (Dead of Night), also features Crystal Nguyen, this time in northern Minnesota.

Stanley edited (with AnnaMaria Alfieri) a collection of dark short stories set in hot places, titled Sunshine Noir.