Melvin Burgess

Melvin Burgess was brought up in Sussex and Berkshire.  As a child, his reading included The Wind in the Willows and Gerald Durrell's animal stories. He went on to enjoy The Hobbit and Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast books. A generally unconfident student, he became interested in writing when he was twelve and an English teacher praised one of his stories  - "it was about the first time I'd ever done anything that got an A. I was so pleased I never stopped."  After leaving school, Melvin moved to Bristol  where he worked on occasional jobs, mainly in the building industry, and was often unemployed.  He started writing in his twenties and wrote on and off for the next fifteen years before The Cry of the Wolf was published. He moved to London in 1983 and began a small business marbling fabrics for the fashion industry. 

Melvin Burgess is regarded as one of the best writers in contemporary children's literature. In 1997, his controversial bestseller Junk won the Guardian Children's Fiction Award and the Carnegie Medal. It was also shortlisted for the 1998 Whitbread Children's Book of the Year. Four of his novels have been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. Melvin lives in Hebden Bridge with his partner.

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Featured Books, with extracts by Melvin Burgess

Burning Issy
Melvin Burgess
Carnegie-prize winning Melvin Burgess brings the past to life in this atmospheric story of witchcraft in seventeenth-century England. Haunted by terrible dreams Issy has to find out about her past and about her true nature. Brought up infused with the...
Featured in: 11+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 02/02/2012
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The Cry of the Wolf
Melvin Burgess
Highly commended for the Carnegie Medal. It was a mistake for Ben to tell the Hunter that there were still wolves in Surrey. For the Hunter was a fanatic, always on the lookout for unusual prey. Driven by an ambition to...
Featured in: 11+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 03/11/2011
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Kill All Enemies
Melvin Burgess
A brilliant, intense and important book for everyone who cares about the real lives of many young people. The award winning author of Junk, Melvin Burgess, is at his very best in this hard hitting and deeply touching story...
Featured in: 14+ readers | Books of the Month | Ebooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 01/09/2011
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Nicholas Dane
Melvin Burgess
Carnegie-prize winning author, Melvin Burgess, has written a long-awaited new novel.  This compelling story of a teenager caught in a corrupt 1980s care home is a powerful study of a particularly highly charged and distressing subject and one that is...
Featured in: 14+ readers | Books for Boys
Format: Paperback - Released: 03/06/2010
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Nicholas Dane
Melvin Burgess
Carnegie-prize winning author, Melvin Burgess, has written a long-awaited new novel.  This compelling story of a teenager caught in a corrupt 1980s care home is a powerful study of a particularly highly charged and distressing subject and one that is...
Featured in: 11+ readers | 14+ readers
Format: Hardback - Released: 04/06/2009
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Sara's Face
Melvin Burgess
As ever, Melvin Burgess makes readers think. Sara signs up for a face transplant but is it her who wants it or, is she being pushed into doing it against her will by the scarred pop-star who wants her face?...
Featured in: 11+ readers | Bookshelf Essentials
Format: Paperback - Released: 31/01/2008
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Bloodsong
Melvin Burgess
Melvin Burgess is justly regarded as the Godfather of Young Adult fiction in the UK. He doesn’t disappoint with this work of mind-bending imagination and power, in which myth, magic and science fiction are mixed with the basest and best...
Featured in: 14+ readers
Format: Paperback (b Format) - Released: 04/01/2007
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Sara's Face
Melvin Burgess
This is young adult fiction at its challenging and thrilling best - and Melvin Burgess has yet again struck a chord with a teenager’s world.  The issue of cosmetic surgery is brought sharply into focus and in such a way that the...
Featured in: 11+ readers
Format: Hardback - Released: 01/06/2006
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Bloodsong
Melvin Burgess
Melvin Burgess is justly regarded as the Godfather of Young Adult fiction in the UK. He doesn’t disappoint with this work of mind-bending imagination and power, in which myth, magic and science fiction are mixed with the basest and best...
Featured in: 14+ readers
Format: Hardback - Released: 01/09/2005
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Junk
Melvin Burgess
Carnegie winner in 1996. When it was published in 1996 it created a Storm of Protest - especially from those who didn't bother to read it. The book, however, is credible, honest, realistic, moving and sympathetic - not...
Featured in: 14+ readers | Books for Boys | Ebooks
Format: Paperback (b Format) - Released: 06/03/2003
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