Good morning!

As part of my endeavour to highlight amazing authors and their books, I am pledging to an author spotlight every month. There’ll be a Q&A with them, blog posts about their books (both released and those to be released), a resource specially made by me for one of their books and then an ‘If you like… you’ll love…’ post!

I am incredibly lucky to have built relationships with many amazing authors over the year, and this month’s author is someone who is everything that is good about the publishing world – amazing stories, incredible human AND gives back to teachers!

This month’s author spotlight is Mel Taylor-Bessent!

Tell us about yourself and your books
Hello, I’m Mel (Melly to my friends / ‘crazy writing lady’ to pupils I meet in schools!). I’m the author of The Christmas Carrolls series, Race to Imagination Island (book 3 is out this month!), and Riley Wright is Always Wrong, which is out on 21^st May 2026.

I’ve wanted to become an author since I was eight years old, so I don’t think it surprised anyone when I studied Creative Writing at university and wrote my first Young Adult trilogy before I graduated. What happened after I graduated surprised everyone, though – including myself. The plan was to write in the mornings and run creative writing after-school clubs for children in the afternoons. Five weeks later, this little idea had turned into a full-blown business, and I found myself running workshops in 30+ schools a week, training a full team of tutors, developing termly lesson plans, running one-off workshops across Europe, winning a few awards, and arranging for authors to visit our workshops via their publishers. I can’t tell you how much I loved running Little Star Writing workshops, but I had zero time to write myself.

Running LSW did turn into another business venture, though. After arranging over 200 author events over the nine years and seeing the instant impact they had on children’s reading and writing for pleasure, I got thinking… ‘Why have one author into one school, when I can interview authors on camera and share their ideas and writing tips with anyone in the world!?’. This led me to create authorfy.com, which has become the largest library of author videos in the world (I believe!) and has just been named an official resource for the National Year of Reading 2026 and is totally free to access for the next twelve months.

I may have put my writing dream on hold for fifteen years, but teaching thousands of children for Little Star Writing and interviewing hundreds of authors for Authorfy gave me the best insights and training an aspiring author could wish for. I don’t think I’d be the author I am today without them.

I finally got a literary agent in 2020, just 48-hours after I announced I was closing my first business, Little Star Writing. It felt like fate, meeting the agent at a publishing event where I pitched an idea for a ‘crazy Christmas story’ but I hadn’t actually written a word of it. That story became The Christmas Carrolls, a bestseller on the week it published, and a Blue Peter Book Club pick. The sequels, The Christmas Competition and The Christmas Club published in 2022 and 2023, and then I launched a big fantasy adventure series, Race to Imagination Island in 2024. I’ve always loved reading books where anything feels possible, but I don’t think I would have had the confidence to write something so chaotic and crazy if it wasn’t for working with such creative and hilarious Little Star Writers for nearly a decade.

I’m SO excited that the third instalment of Imagination Island – a story about a magical island that comes to life when you use your imagination – is publishing this month. Ten-year-old Luca finds himself back on the island with even bigger challenges to face – not just from the island or the Race, but from his own teammates.

Tell us about your most recent release – what was the best bit of writing the book?
When I sit down to write an Imagination Island book, I pretend I’m eight years old again and try to push my imagination to the very limit. Imagination Island 3: Race to Rumble Ruin was much the same. I wanted it to be crazy, chaotic and fast-paced, so the reader feels like they’re racing through the book with the characters, but I also wanted to add more twists and delve deeper into some of the character’s back stories. This led to a rather emotional last chapter, and a big cliffhanger ending that had me crying when I wrote it. But there are lots of laugh-out-loud moments, too – Luca and his teammates crack jokes in Laughter Lagoon (the judges are a group of mermaids called Rusty, Dusty, Crusty . . . and Pedro), they ride giant space hoppers on a rainbow road in the sky, and they play an epic game of Hide and Seek in a crumbling colosseum where if they’re caught, they turn to stone. I try to make the challenges bigger and better in every book, but mix that chaos with quieter, more vulnerable, relatable moments, and my aim is to make readers wonder if the island is a real place or not . . .

Which of your books is your “favourite”? 
This is such a tough question! I’m really proud of the Imagination Island books. Wrangling sixteen characters, four mascots, and an island where literally ANYTHING can happen is no small task, and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the help of my amazing editor. I often say the book I’m currently working on is my favourite because I think I’m improving with each book I write, but my actual answer has got to be The Christmas Carrolls. It’s the book that turned me into a published author, and it was absolute JOY to write. Holding a copy in my hands for the first time was a feeling like no other.

Which of your characters was the most fun to write? The hardest to write?
Ali from Imagination Island is hilarious and so much fun to write. The team can be having a big emotional moment, and she’ll disturb their heart-to-heart with a random question like ‘who here likes Samosas!?’. I can write almost anything for Ali and get away with it because the humour comes from her not making sense! The hardest character to write is probably Om (also from Imagination Island). He doesn’t say a word in the books, but he’s a big thinker and very perceptive. I had to find different ways for him to communicate and show his personality, and that took a bit more thought and care, but I think it really paid off.

What’s next for you? Tell us about your next release(s) if you can! 
I’ve got a new series coming out this year, which I’m so excited about! It’s called Riley Wright is Always Wrong and it’s like a young Wimpy Kid or Lottie Brooks. It’s told in the format of a diary, and follows clumsy / forgetful Riley starting a new school in Year 4 where her super-embarrassing Dad is the new head teacher. It’s packed with relatable friendships, awkward fails, and lots of fairy lights (in a secret understairs library hidden somewhere in the school!). I’ve written it with reading in pleasure in mind – it’s packed with humour, illustrations on every page by the brilliant Sr Sanchez, short chapters and a pact plot. There’s actually going to be two Riley Wright books out this year, and more in 2027.

What kind of reader are you? What do you like to read?
I’ve loved fantasy adventure books from a really young age (I lost count of the number of times I read The Enchanted Wood), and this evolved to enjoying epic Young Adult fantasy series when I got older. I read a lot of picture books and middle grade for work (which I LOVE!), but when I have time to read something for me, I like to tuck into a really compelling YA series.  

What advice do you have to get people reading? 
Find a book that matches your hobbies or interests. That way, you’ll connect to the text faster and already have an interest in the theme or subject matter. From there, you can expand your reading horizons and see what else appeals to you.

What have you read recently that you’d recommend? What’s on your TBR for 2026?
I recently read an early copy of Laura Ellen Anderson’s Star Kitties, which is the most adorable book I’ve ever read! It’s for younger readers, it’s full of her beautiful illustrations, and is the exact kind of book I would have loved when I was younger. It’s coming out in May this year. I also really enjoyed Rashmi Sirdeshpande’s Hari Kumar Ultimate Superstar, which is out in February. The inclusivity and representation in the book is spectacular, and Hari is such a relatable character. And for picture books, Stephanie Stansbie and Wendy J Warren’s The Bear Who Wanted To Dance is absolutely gorgeous. The illustrations are magical and it’s such a beautiful story about chasing dreams and celebrating your differences.

If you want to find out more about Mel, here’s some super important links!

My website: www.meltaylorbessent.com

Mel’s (free) Authorfy masterclass: www.authorfy.com/masterclasses/meltaylorbessent (there’s free resources and extracts for all of her books on there too) 

Mel’s Write for Fun YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@writeforfunwithMTB

Teachers can register here to win a free event with Mel in summer 2026: https://mailchi.mp/meltaylorbessent/freeschoolevents

A massive thanks to Mel for her time for today’s blog post!

I CAN’T WAIT for the newest Imagination Island and Riley Wright (keep your eyes peeled for the cover reveal).

Go show Mel some love and follow her on the socials… she is brilliant and the perfect bookish person to get authors virtually into classrooms!

S x