Melanie McGrath

Mel is a bestselling and award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction. As MJ McGrath she writes the Edie Kiglatuk series of Arctic mysteries, currently in development for TV. As Mel McGrath she writes the bestselling psychological thrillers Give Me The Child and The Guilty Party. And as Melanie McGrath she writes critically acclaimed nonfiction. She has been shortlisted for the James Tait Black Award for Biography, the Andre Simon Awards and Fortnum and Mason Awards for Best Food Book and the HWA Gold Crown for Best History Book. She has also twice been long listed for the CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Book. Her work has been translated into more than twenty languages. She is a cofounder of the Killer Women author group and co-curates the annual Killer Women Festival of Crime Writing and Drama in London.

Mel was born in Essex and has lived in the UK, Germany, the US and Nicaragua. She has been lucky enough to travel widely, including to the Arctic and the Madagascan Rain Forest. She is now based in London and on the Kent coast. In 2005 she set up a charity to help provide medical care for children in Central America. She has worked in a number of prisons, including Holloway women's prison and is currently a mentor for women who have been sex trafficked.

In other lives, she has been a journalist and TV producer and presenter.