British writer Melvin Burgess has combined fantasy with gritty realism in a succession of critically-acclaimed young adult novels which are unsettling and controversial. In Junk, his best known work, and in several other books, Burgess deals with troubled characters on the fringe of society who are struggling to come to grips with the world and their place in it. In his writing, Burgess has revealed a perspective that is hard-edged and sometimes dark. As he once told Something about the Author (SATA), "My books are about anything that interests me, but they really all have this in common--they are life seen from the underside, not (usually) from the top."

Burgess was born into a middle class family living in Twickenham, Surrey, just southwest of London, but grew up in nearby Sussex and Berkshire counties. He recalled in a 1998 interview with Brangien Davis of Amazon.com that he was...