The writing for young adults event may have featured three authors but it is dominated by one – the controversial Melvin Burgess. Kevin Brooks (author of Candy) and Anne Cassidy (award-winning Looking for JJ) are present and correct (and wearing a fetching porkpie hat in Brooks's case) but it is Burgess who has the most to say on a subject – what you can and cannot say when writing for young adults – on which he has been roundly barracked in the past. The author of Junk, Doing It and Lady, My Life as a Bitch was forthright in defending his right to tackle thorny issues such as drug abuse, prostitution and teenage sex in his work.
"We have a traumatised view of teenagers," he commented. "They are 'children with sex' and adults find that really disturbing."
"It's a myth that children have to be protected from books about violence, sex and drugs," he continued.
"In any case," he adds with a grin, "what's so bad about sex and drugs and violence? Ok, violence is bad. But drugs, well, I enjoy a drink or two. And sex? That's really nice!"
He argues that books for teenagers should be more edgy and dangerous than books for adults, because teenagers 'get' narrative and story better than adults as they are more familiar with different sources from adverts and films to computers and texting.
Finally, he offers a neat summary of his writing style: "there's no such thing as difficult concepts, just bastards who make them difficult to understand"
