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Campbell Armstrong
Campbell Armstrong
Born	25 February 1944; Glasgow, Scotland
Died	1 March 2013 (aged 69); Dublin, Ireland
Occupation	Novelist
Genre	Political intrigue
Notable works	Jig, Concert of Ghosts, Agents of Darkness, All That Really Matters, Mambo, Deaths' Head, Assassins & Victims
Website
	campbellarmstrong.com/index.php

Campbell Armstrong (25 February 1944 – 1 March 2013) was born Thomas Campbell Black^[1] and was a Scottish author who graduated with a degree in philosophy from the University of Sussex, England.^[2] He taught creative writing from 1971 to 1974 at the State University of New York at Oswego; from 1975 to 1978 he taught at Arizona State University. He worked for some years as a fiction editor with various London publishing houses.^[3]^[4]^[5] After living for many years in England and the United States, he moved to Shannon Harbour, Ireland.^[6] He died on 1 March 2013, four days after his 69th birthday.

His novels Assassins & Victims and The Punctual Rape won Scottish Arts Council Awards. The Last Darkness and White Rage were nominated for the Prix du Polar. His quartet of Glasgow novels consists of The Bad Fire, The Last Darkness, White Rage, and Butcher. He also wrote a memoir titled All That Really Matters, retitled in the United States as I Hope You Have a Good Life.^[7]

Under his real name, "Campbell Black"—and under the pseudonym "Thomas Altman"—he wrote novelizations of movies including Raiders of the Lost Ark and Dressed to Kill, as well as thrillers and horror novels.^[8] He co-wrote the 1980 novel The Homing with Jeffrey Caine, under the pseudonym "Jeffrey Campbell."^[9]

His work was originally influenced by Robert Louis Stevenson, and he ascribed a certain "dark aspect" of his writing to the opening scenes of Treasure Island. Among other influences he included Franz Kafka, Fred Vargas, Kobo Abe, and Albert Camus.^[10]

His books have been translated into French, German, Greek, Japanese, Italian, Hebrew and Polish.

Bibliography

The Wanting (1966)*
Assassins & Victims (1969)*
The Punctual Rape (1970)*
Death's Head (1971)*
Brainfire (1977)
Letters from the Dead (1980)*
Dressed to Kill (Novelization) (1980)*
Raiders of the Lost Ark (Novelization) (1981)
Black Christmas (1983)**
Mr. Apology (1984)*
The Piper (1986)*
Jig (1987)
Mazurka (1988)
Mambo (1989)
Agents of Darkness (1991)
Asterisk (1992)
Concert of Ghosts (1992)
Jigsaw (1994)
Heat (1996)
Blackout (1996)
Silencer (1997)
Deadline (2000)

[*]= as "Campbell Black"

[**]= as "Thomas Altman"

The Glasgow Novels

Bad Fire (2002)
The Last Darkness (2003)
White Rage (2004)
Butcher (2006)

Memoir

I Hope You Have a Good Life (UK title: All That Really Matters) (2000)

Plays

Death’s Head (BBC-TV) (1968)
And They Used to Star in Movies (Peacock, Dublin: Travers, Edinburgh; Body Politic, Chicago. Soho Poly, London) (1970)
The Trial of Mr. Punch on Charges of Cruelty (2008)
Whispering (radio play broadcast by the BBC in 2008)

References

^ "Obituary: Campbell Armstrong". The Herald. Glasgow. 28 May 2013. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
^ "MBA Literary Agents | Campbell Armstrong | Authors | Scriptwriters and Directors". Mbalit.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2 May 2013. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
^ "Campbell Armstrong". Fantasticfiction.co.uk. Retrieved 18 December 2011.
^ "Browse Authors at HarperCollins Publishers". Harpercollins.ca. 24 March 2010. Retrieved 18 December 2011.
^ "Campbell Armstrong at Allison and Busby". Allisonandbusby.com. Retrieved 18 December 2011.
^ Delaney, Eamon (4 September 2000). "Campbell Armstrong: Making It Whole Again". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
^ "Campbell Armstrong". Open Road Media. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
^ "Campbell Armstrong". Fantastic Fiction. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
^ Campbell, Jeffrey (1980). The Homing. New York: Putnam. ISBN 0-345-28793-2.
^ "Obituary: Campbell Armstrong". The Herald. Glasgow. 28 May 2013. Retrieved 28 May 2013.