Melvin Burgess was born in Sussex in 1954. He did poorly at school and after a short period training as a journalist had a number of odd jobs and was unemployed for much of the time. His first book, The Cry of ther Wolf, was published in 1990, and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. He has since won the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Children's Fiction Award for his controversial novel, Junk, The Lancashire Children's Book Award for Bloodtide and the LA Times Best Young Adult Book of the Year awa ... Learn more