Melvin Burgess
Author of Billy Elliot
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About Melvin Burgess
Melvin Burgess is an iconic, award-winning young adult fiction author. He was born in 1954 in Twickenham, but grew up in Sussex and Berkshire.
After a brief early stint as a journalist, Melvin turned his attention to writing fiction, and his novels have been published to wide critical acclaim. His debut novel, Cry of the Wolf, was nominated for the Carnegie Medal. In 1997 his hard-hitting and controversial novel Junk won both the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award.
Melvin is the author of The Hit for Chicken House, with whom he also published Billy Elliot, an adaptation of the hugely successful screenplay.
Accolades and awards
- JUNK
Winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Award
Winner of the Carnegie Medal 1996
Shortlisted for the 1998 Whitbread Children's Book of the Year - BLOODTIDE
Winner of the Lancashire Children's Book Award - DOING IT
Winner of the LA Times Best Young Adult Book of the Year award - THE GHOST BEHIND THE WALL
Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal 2000 - THE BABY AND THE FLY PIE
Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal 1993 - AN ANGEL FOR MAY
Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal 1992 - THE CRY OF THE WOLF
Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal 1990
Other books by Melvin Burgess
