Mel Taylor-Bessent

Mel has been writing stories for as long as she can remember. It came as no surprise that Mel followed her passion for writing into university, and after graduating with a Creative Writing degree, she set up her own company at the age of 22 and ran creative writing after school clubs for children aged 7+.

‘Little Star Writing’ grew so quickly that Mel developed a training scheme for 150+ tutors, wrote weekly lesson plans and even ran workshops across Europe, organised two literary festivals and arranged more than 200 author events.

A few years later, she developed an online platform that brought children all over the world closer to their favourite authors. She called it ‘Authorfy’ and it quickly became one of the leading literacy websites with videos and resources from authors such as Michael Morpurgo, Michael Rosen, Cressida Cowell and Anthony Horowitz. After winning a few awards, partnering with all major children’s publishers and running campaigns with the likes of World Book Day and BookTrust, Mel returned to her own writing in 2020. Her first book, The Christmas Carrolls, the first in a three-book series, published in October 2021.