Melvin Burgess: 'Junk is the book I wish I had when I was 15'

Twenty years ago YA fiction barely existed, so Melvin Burgess’s book about drug addiction caused waves of outrage – here he reflects on kicking down the doors for other authors

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When it was published 20 years ago, Junk was a long shot. Teenage fiction at the time was really aimed at 11 and 12-year-olds. Maybe the occasional 14-year-old might read down to it, but no one seriously thought that 15 or 16-year-olds would read it. I remember some librarians saying that they thought it was a great book, but that it’s likely fate was to languish on the shelves.

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