Testimonials

“Please pass on my heart felt thanks to Melvin.  He was an inspiration to all our children at St Mary’s Academy.  His talks were from the heart, inspiring and the children were lost in his story telling. ” 

Michelle Glass – St Mary’s Catholic Academy, Blackpool.

 – Some feedback from students –

“Melvin Burgess is an absolute top lad: he has loads of banter. It was a complete belter of an afternoon. 10/10”

“I LOVED IT I THOUGHT IT WAS FAB!!! YOU ARE HILARIOUS! HA HA HA!” 

“It wasn’t what I expected, I thought it would have been boring but it really wasn’t! I’m going to try and read some of his books now.”

Author Talks

I very much enjoy visiting schools and libraries to deliver talks and workshops. My aim is to inspire a love for reading, books and stories of all kinds.

My work covers the full range of High School students from Year 7 all the way up. I’m also often asked to speak to at colleges and universities.

Costs are £400 a day, plus expenses, plus VAT. If yours is a special case, though – do drop me a line and let’s talk. You can reach me on administrator@melvinburgess.net. Or, if you want a professional set up to help you get the very best out of the visit I can highly recommend getting in touch with Authors Aloud. They really know their stuff, understand both schools and authors and will handle the whole thing for a small fee.

Content

I’m happy to discuss which books you do or do not want me to use and what sort of talk or workshops suit you best. I try to be flexible where possible. Books for younger children, such as Cry of the Wolf, An Angel for May, the Baby and Fly Pie etc, usually have no serious issues for schools. For older teenagers, Junk is pretty well accepted nowadays and in fact appears on many recommended reading lists. It’s been many years since I had any real problems on this count. However, I am more than happy to discuss language and content to suit your particular situation.

The most contentious of my books is Doing It – very rude, and hopefully very funny, but  not something I would introduce without the full backing of the school. In fact – by special request only!  I have presented this book in schools in recent years, most noticeably for the Scottish Book Trust, with whom I did a very successful tour featuring Doing It in 2014. It is perfect for older teenagers who are reluctant to read. Do contact me if you are interested.

Talks

Talks last roughly an hour, depending on your school timetable. I put a lot of effort into this and my hope is to be entertaining, enthralling and inspirational. My aim is to leave behind an audience keen to read.

The size of group I can address does vary from school to school, but you can pack them in if you feel it’s appropriate. I am used to dealing with large audiences.

Workshops

Writing workshops are much more effective with students who are keen to write, rather than with reluctant students who are probably better with a talk – reading comes before writing!

Workshops can last from one to two hours or more. Numbers are obviously better kept low, particularly for the longer workshops, in which I would hope to get round and see how the students are getting on. for such workshops, no more than twenty, please. With shorter workshops, again, depending on the school, I can deal with more.

Programming

Schools often want to have both talks and workshops, and I’m more than happy to do that. Please bear in mind, though, that the talks are very demanding – it’s a bit like being on stage – and I can’t put in as many contact hours as if I were teaching. Workshops too, involve a lot of setting up. Don’t destroy the author! I can do combinations such as two talks and a workshop, two long workshops or three short ones. I do want you to get value for money, but basically, anything that involves me talking non stop for more than three hours is too much. I’m also more than happy to make myself available to be interviewed, or chat informally to a smaller group after lunch, etc.

If workshops are involved, it’s often a balance between how many students you want me to see, and giving some of them a chance to do some actual work. If you want me to get around large numbers, talks are better.

Do get in touch – I’m happy to discuss and will try to be flexible. Email me at administrator@melvinburgess.net or enquire at Authors Aloud.

Feedback

Some stats and feedbacks from a recent tour I did with The Scottish Book Trust.

Inspiring students

The aim of this Book Week Scotland Road Show 2015 was to engage older teenagers who do not see themselves as readers, inspiring reluctant readers to pick up a book for pleasure, not just for exams.

First – some Super Stats!

98% of pupils gave the event 4 or 5 stars!

1 in 4 pupils bought a book!

8 schools really enjoyed Doing It!

Press Coverage

Forfar Dispatch                    03.12.2015

Central Fife Times               03.12.2015

Arbroath Herald                   27.11.2015

Dundee Telegraph                25.11.2015

The Courier                           24.11.2015

Motherwell Times               18.11.2015

Glasgow Evening Times    16.11.2015

Teacher Feedback

An excellent talk which really helped my pupils to engage with Billy Elliot which we have been reading in class. They also bought books which shows that Melvin Burgess has helped them to engage with more teenage fiction. He also gave them tips for their own writing which has really helped the pupils and reassured me that my teaching of the novel was correct! Megan Brough, English Teacher, Arbroath Academy

 Excellent event! Our senior pupils enjoyed Melvin’s talk and it has encouraged many pupils to read his books. Angela Macari, Librarian, Inverkeithing High School

 The event was great fun and all the pupils really enjoyed it. They found Melvin very personable and all thought he was funny and that the books were interesting. Lee-Anne Connor, Librarian, Chryston High School

Pupils were very engaged with the talk because it covered topics not normally addressed. They found it funny and engaging. It was the appropriate level for a senior audience. Pamela Jannaway, English Teacher, Forfar Academy

It was a very enjoyable and well organised event. Our target audience was reluctant readers and it was very encouraging that so many pupils bought books after hearing Melvin speak. Melvin was funny and engaging and was a big hit with our pupils. Chris Juan, English Teacher, Forfar Academy

 Pupil Feedback

I had a really great time. Through the whole thing I had a smile on my face. He was a very funny and confident guy. I don’t usually like to read but his books sound interesting. Chelsea, 15 Arbroath Academy

 I really enjoyed Melvin Burgess event and I also think that he is a very inspirational person. He has inspired me to read books and write more, I’m really glad that he came to Arbroath Academy to speak to us about his life and his work. Aaron, 14, Arbroath Academy

 I really enjoyed Melvin Burgess’ author event and I found him really funny. I thought at the beginning of the event that it would be quite boring because I’ve never heard an author speak, but I actually found it very interesting listening to him talk about his career and books. Rachael, 15, Arbroath Academy

 He’s a good author and I really enjoyed listening to him talk about his books. I felt the event was great and I had a really good time. I think I will have to read more of his books! Morgan, 15, Arbroath Academy

 It wasn’t what I expected, I thought it would have been boring but it really wasn’t! I’m going to try and read some of his books now. Louise, 15, Arbroath Academy

 It was very funny and I felt Melvin engaged the audience all the way through. He understood and connected with us well. Altogether it was a hilarious, engaging and interesting talk. Mairi, 17, Inverkeithing High School

 It was very interesting. It made me want to read more of his books because they were very relevant to people of our age. Claire, 17, Inverkeithing High School

 I had a good time and Melvin was really funny. I don’t normally read but I bought one of his books and am going to read it He had a lot to say about his books and all his books sounded really interesting. Megan, 16, Chryston High School

 I really enjoyed listening to Melvin talk about his books and read some extracts from them. He treated us like adults and read stuff that other authors probably wouldn’t. Jonathan, 16, Chryston High School

I really enjoyed listening to Melvin as he spoke to us like adults and not like we had never heard things like that before. The books were aimed at people my age which was good considering what they are about. Calum, 16, Chryston High School

 It was very good! Enjoyed it a lot! Was very funny to hear about his work and stuff. I’ll be making sure to pick up a couple of his books! Alana, 17, Chryston High School

 I really enjoyed the talk and found Melvin Burgess really funny. It was interesting to hear about the opinions that he received about his books and his inspiration to write them. I would have liked to hear more!  Holly, 15, Chryston High School

 I found the event extremely enjoyable. Melvin was very entertaining and humorous which made the event memorable and a lot of fun. It has encouraged me to read Melvin’s novels, they seem to cover important and intriguing topics. Rebeccah, 16, Forfar Academy

 I LOVED IT I THOUGHT IT WAS FAB!!! YOU ARE HILARIOUS! HA HA HA  Rachelle, 17, Forfar Academy

 I really liked the Melvin Burgess event as his books are related to real life situations and real people so others would be able to relate. It was a lot better than I expected as Melvin was very funny!  Chloe, 16 Forfar Academy

 Melvin Burgess is an absolute top lad: he has loads of banter and his books are top shelf material. It was a complete belter of an afternoon. 10/10  David, 16, Forfar Academy

 I really enjoyed listening to Melvin’s stories and hearing about his influences. It was humorous yet it focussed on all of the serious issues that us teenagers experience. Lori. 17 Forfar Academy

 I really enjoyed the Melvin Burgess event. It was interesting and he discussed topics that some people would feel uncomfortable discussing. I loved how his books were related to real life experiences. Kiera, 16, Forfar Academy

 I thoroughly enjoyed this event, learning about his books and where he got his stories from was amazing. Glad he had a laugh with us about his book. Learning and hearing about the girls in his story was hard hitting but really good. Glad I went to this event.  Emma, 17, Forfar Academy

 I though the event was very educational and will help us to develop our writing. Melvin got everyone laughing when talking about his book ‘Doing It’ as it had funny things in it which we wouldn’t normally get to hear about. Euan, 17, Forfar Academy

Great! I liked the presentation because he was full of banter and it was educational too. Cheap books, signed by my main man Melvin. Lloyd, 17, Forfar Academy