(Middlesex ,
United Kingdom. 1954). Writer of acclaimed and often controversial children's
fiction, Melvin Burgess‘s writing has experimented with short stories, radio
plays and children's fiction. His first published book, The Cry of the Wolf (1990), was
shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. It
was for his controversial teenage novel, Junk (1996) that he gained wider
recognition. Winner of the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction
Prize, it is an honest and disturbing account of teenage homelessness and
heroin addiction on the streets of Bristol, and has been adapted for
television. Bloodtide (1999) was joint winner of the Lancashire County Library
Children's Book of the Year Award. His comedy Lady: My Life as a Bitch (2001), also received
a great deal of publicity for its frank exploration of the sexual behaviour of
a teenage girl. Also in 2001, his novelisation of the film Billy Elliot
was published, based on Lee Hall's screenplay.
His
latest book, Nicholas Dane (2009), is the story of a teenager living
in a corrupt 1980s Care Home.