Born in Sussex in 1954, Melvin Burgess left school with A-levels in Biology and English (a strange but suitably quirky combination!), and promptly enrolled on a journalism course for six months. At 21, he moved to Bristol (where his controversial novel Junk is set) for a few years and began his writing career, experimenting with short stories, children’s fiction and radio plays, in between spells of work and unemployment.
