Burgess, Melvin

Melvin Burgess is an author of books for children and young adults. He was born in Twickenham, London, and grew up in Surrey and Sussex, a shy boy who lived in a world of his own. He was more interested in daydreaming than in going to school, and not until he turned eighteen did he find some attraction in the things that went on outside his own mind. He had no idea what he wanted to do after school until his father, a writer, suggested a course in journalism at Cardiff. There he learned nothing about journalism, but a great deal about life and how to get away with studying as little as possible in favour of dancing and talking all night long; but he knew one thing, that he wanted to become an author. Burgess wrote on and off for the next fifteen years while working as a bus conductor, street musician, builder and journalist. He has been a full-time writer since the early nineties. Having spent most of his adult life in London, he now lives at Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire.