Melvin Burgess Books In Order

Bloodtide Books In Order

  1. Bloodtide (1999)
  2. Bloodsong (2005)

Ruled Britannia Books In Order

  1. Three Bullets (2021)

Novels

  1. The Cry of the Wolf (1990)
  2. Burning Issy (1992)
  3. An Angel for May (1992)
  4. The Baby and Fly Pie (1993)
  5. Loving April (1995)
  6. The Earth Giant (1995)
  7. Junk (1996)
  8. Kite (1997)
  9. Tiger, Tiger (1998)
  10. Old Bag (1999)
  11. The Ghost Behind the Wall (2000)
  12. Billy Elliot (2001)
  13. Lady (2001)
  14. Doing It (2003)
  15. Sarah’s Face (2006)
  16. Nicholas Dane (2009)
  17. Kill All Enemies (2011)
  18. Hunger (2013)
  19. The Hit (2013)
  20. Sara’s Face (2017)
  21. The Lost Witch (2018)
  22. Count (2021)

Collections

  1. Shining on (2006)
  2. Krispy Whispers (2013)
  3. War Girls (2014)
  4. I’ll Be Home For Christmas (2016)

Chapbooks

  1. The Copper Treasure (1998)
  2. The Birdman (2000)
  3. Robbers on the Road (2002)

Novellas

  1. Persist (2015)

Bloodtide Book Covers

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Melvin Burgess Books Overview

Bloodtide

The time is the not too distant future. London is in ruins. A bombed out shell. A picked over carcass where the only rule of law is might makes right. What remains of the city is being fought over by two ruthless gangs of warlords. In an effort to create peace, however, a truce between the two families is suggested by Val, patriarch of the Volson clan. His collateral? The hand of his fourteen year old daughter, Signy, in marriage to his blood rival, Conor. A rebellious, headstrong teenager who has dreamed all her life of joining her father’s forces as a soldier in the war against Conor, Signy is stunned by the announcement. To agree to such a plan is unthinkable! Conor is her mortal enemy. To live as his wife is no better than to live as a slave…
for the rest of her life. But what of the alternative? Does she dare defy her father? And what of the consequences of her rebellion? Her decision will set in motion a series of events events both horrifying and tragic that will change her life forever. Melvin Burgess has fashioned a powerfully dystopian vision of a young woman’s coming of age against the backdrop of war that is shocking, harrowing, and compelling.

Bloodsong

PART II

Fifteen-year-old Sigurd, son of King Sigmund, is the last surviving member of the Volson clan. His father’s kingdom — the former city of London — is gone. And his father’s knife, a gift from Odin himself, has been shattered to dust.

Now, Odin’s eye is upon him. Armed with a powerful sword forged from the remnants of his father’s knife, Sigurd will face death, fire, and torment. He must travel through Hel and back…
to unite his country once again.

The Cry of the Wolf

A hunter determined to wipe out every wolf in England almost succeeds, but then finds himself the prey.

Burning Issy

In this powerful novel set in England in the age of witch hunts, Issy doesn’t know who she is or where she comes from. Every night she dreams of burning in a fire and at the heart of the flames is a face she dare not look at. Fear and superstition are everywhere and life is dangerous for Issy as she runs from the Witch finder, from the evil hag who wants her and from those she loves and maybe from her own true nature.

An Angel for May

Tam is unhappy at home and often takes refuge in the ruins of Thowt It Farm. But then one day he is transported back to the Second World War. Alone and afraid, he makes friends with May, who has been rescued from a bombed out house. She tries to persuade him to stay at the farm, but Tam is afraid of being trapped in the past forever.

The Baby and Fly Pie

We’re the rubbish kids, losers and orphans…
For Sham and Fly Pie, there’s no escape from the grim reality of their lives every day they sort rubbish on the tip for Mother Shelly. Then one day everything changes when they find a baby on the Tip a baby worth seventeen million pounds.

Junk

Winner of the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Prize for fiction, two of England’s most prestigious awards, Smack tells a penetrating story about hero*in use, a topic that is becoming familiar in the news and one of importance to teens everywhere. The story begins with Tar, a fourteen year old, who runs away from home. He convinces his girlfriend, Gemma, to come with him, and it is not long before they are engulfed in a loose community of people living in abandoned buildings. Everything seems to be turning out so well: they have a roof over their heads, food to eat, and a brand new group of friends. And when Tar and Gemma try their first hit of smack, they think life will keep on getting better. But before long, they find they’ve lost control. The search for the next hit becomes all consuming until a disaster forces Gemma to take matters into her own hands. Insightful, haunting, and real, Smack is the Go Ask Alice of the ’90s. It’s a book that every teenager should read then pass along to a friend.

Kite

Taylor loves birds and collects eggs. He has the rare opportunity to enhance his collection when a pair of red kites nest nearby. The only problem is, the red kites are extremely rare only twenty five are left in the country. Taylor’s father, a gamekeeper, is under orders from his boss, the landowner Reg Harris, to kill the kites, who are birds of prey and will go after Harris’s grouse population. For Taylor, the temptation also to take the eggs from the kites’ nest becomes insurmountable when Harris actually asks him to do the job, even though it is illegal. Pangs of terrible guilt follow, and although Taylor tells Harris he’s gotten rid of the incriminating evidence, he secretly salvages and hatches one egg. But as soon as the bird is born, elaborate plans must be made to keep its existence a secret in order to save it from being shot during the approaching hunting season.

The Ghost Behind the Wall

Twelve year old David lives with his dad in a big old apartment building called Mahogany Villas. When he discovers he can climb through the vent pipes in the building and get into other apartments and play tricks on people, he simply can’t resist. His main victim is Robert Alveston, a forgetful man in his nineties who is afraid that he is losing his mind. But David’s nasty pranks soon disturb more than his elderly neighbor. One day he comes face to face with a ghost, at first friendly but more and more terrifying as it becomes clear that he has a particular grudge against Mr Alveston. Soon both the old man and David are in great danger.

Billy Elliot

Billy Elliot‘s tough, funny and heart warming story is given new depth by best selling author, Melvin Burgess. Billy’s mother is dead, and his father and brother are fiercely involved in a bitter miners’ fight that has split the local community. Billy’s father wants his son to learn boxing, like he did and his father before him. But Billy is fascinated by the grace and magic of ballet and is determined to dance his way to a different future. Told from the differing viewpoints of Billy, his father and brother and his friend Michael, Melvin Burgess has captured the spirit of the original film screenplay while demonstrating the skill and inspiration he showed in his award winning novel, ‘Junk’.

Lady

If you gotta be a dog, be a bit*ch.’My tail was going bananas as I rounded the corner and headed into Platt Fields park. The pavement was alive; my nose was an eye that sees into the past. I speeded up. Oh, I was in love with Terry, but to run and sniff and feel my ears catching sounds out of the air! But what do you know? Only a dog could understand what I mean.’Sandra Francy is seventeen and having way too much fun. Everyone wants to stop her but the problem is, she likes it. When she accidentally gets turned into a dog she’s horrified at first, but soon she starts to wonder if being human is worth the effort. Her attempts to hang on to her humanity are bizarre and often hilarious but her life as a dog leads her to pleasures she hardly knew existed. Award winning author Melvin Burgess brilliantly captures the realities of teenage life and hormone imbalance.

Doing It

I mean I like girls. I get on well with them. And I like sex. Not that I’ve had all that much experience of it not with another person being in the room at the same time, anyway. I just can’t somehow put the two together. I can be getting on really well with a girl but as soon as I get an inkling that there might be a chance of anything happening, I just freeze up. It’s scary. Everything you never wanted to know about sex and boys but probably should Dino, Jonathan, and Ben have got some problems, mostly with Jackie, Deborah, and Alison. Dino’s girlfriend Jackie, the most beautiful girl in school, drives him mad with lust, but won’t go all the way and relieve Dino of his desperately unwanted virginity. Jonathan likes Deborah. She’s smart and funny and she makes him feel very sexy, but she’s kind of plump and his mates won’t let him hear the end of it. Ben’s been seduced by Alison, the pretty young drama teacher at school. And what seems like a dream come true is actually making him miserable. Award winning author Melvin Burgess has written a daringly honest and often hilarious account of contemporary teenage life, and the ups and downs that surround ‘Doing It.’

Sarah’s Face

Fame, beauty, and face transplants Sara wants to be famous, and when legendary rock star Jonathon Heat offers to take her under his wing and pay for her cosmetic surgery, it’s like a dream come true. But beauty comes with a hidden price tag. Is Sara willing to pay?

The Copper Treasure

From the critically acclaimed and best selling author of Smack comes a middle grade tale of adventure and cunning in the spirit of Treasure IslandVictorian London in the 1850’s: Jamie, Ten Tons and Davies are young ‘mudlarks’ scavengers who eke out a meager existence by reclaiming bits of coal, rope, and anything of value from the muddy banks of the River Thames. Anything they find might keep them from starving for one more day. When they see a massive roll of copper fall off a ship, the trio comes up with a daring plan to retrieve it and make their fortunes. But can three small boys alone retrieve the impossibly heavy copper from the bottom of the Thames? They resolve to find a way or die trying.

The Birdman

There’s a ragged and strange man on the corner selling caged wild birds. Jarvis feels sorry for them and buys one, intending to set it free. But it sings so sweetly that Jarvis forgets his good intentions. Then one night, when the little robin no longer sings, The Birdman returns.

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