Welcome!
I’m Australian author Amelia Mellor. I grew up in regional Victoria, and now I live in Melbourne with lots of books, a jungle and a big fish tank — just like my characters! When I’m not writing, I like to draw, walk in nature and read dazzling new Aussie literature.
My newest book, The Bookseller’s Apprentice, is out now from Affirm Press. Set in 1871, this prequel to The Grandest Bookshop in the World follows the first employee of Cole’s Book Arcade — twelve-year-old Billy Pyke — on a crusade for justice in what will one day become the Queen Victoria Market. Friends, foes and a few familiar faces collide with more magic, mayhem and Melbourne history.
In 2020, I made my debut with a middle-grade historical fantasy novel, The Grandest Bookshop in the World. Inspired by the life and writing of 19th-century Melbourne bookseller EW Cole, the novel follows two of Mr Cole’s children — ten-year-old Pearl and her thirteen-year-old brother Valentine — as they play a dangerous game against a sinister magician to save their father and their beloved Book Arcade.
It has won a number of awards for children’s literature, sold more than 80,000 copies to date, been acquired in six international territories, and been optioned for film.
Coming soon
Cole’s Book Arcade was three storeys tall - and so it shall be with the Grandest Bookshop Trilogy! The Lost Book of Magic is coming in October 2024.
Check out the new page to discover more.