Graeme Armstrong (author)

Graeme Armstrong
Born	1991 Airdrie, Scotland
Alma mater	University of Stirling
Notable awards	Betty Trask Award (2021) Somerset Maugham Award (2021) Granta Best of Young British Novelists (2023)

Graeme Armstrong (born 1991)^[1] is a Scottish author best known for his debut novel, The Young Team. The novel won the 2021 Betty Trask Award and Somerset Maugham Award,^[2][3] and was Scots Language Awards 'Scots Book of the Year' in the same year. The Young Team is currently being adapted for television by Synchronicity Films.^[4]

In 2023, Granta included Armstrong on their ‘Best of Young British Novelists’ list,^[5][6] an honour presented every ten years to the twenty most significant British novelists under forty.^[7]

Armstrong’s second novel, Raveheart, is to be published by 4th Estate (imprint) at HarperCollins in April 2026. It is to be adapted for screen by Warp Films, (producers of This Is England, Dead Man's Shoes (2004 film) and Four Lions) ^[8] and is a dystopian rave comedy.

Biography

Armstrong (right) as a young gang member in Airdrie, 2006

Armstrong is from Airdrie, Scotland.^[9][10] As a teenager he was involved in North Lanarkshire's 'young team' territorial gang culture as a member of the Young Mavis, from Glenmavis.^[9][11] At fourteen, he was expelled from Airdrie Academy and began attending Coatbridge High School, where he joined another gang, the Lang El Toi (LL TOI) from Langloan, Coatbridge.^[10]

Armstrong is a lifelong supporter of Scottish football side Rangers F.C

Aged sixteen, following the deaths of three friends by heroin overdose^[1] and after reading Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh, Armstrong pursued a route of higher education, and began to break away from gang life.^[12][11] During his time in gangs, he struggled with alcohol abuse, drug addiction and violence.^[13][10] Armstrong "stopped taking drugs on Christmas Day 2012" and speaks candidly about having a Christian faith. His experiences inspired his debut novel, The Young Team, a work of social realism, written in West Central Scots language.^{[9][10][11][14]}

In 2013, Armstrong received a 2:1 Bachelor of Arts undergraduate degree in English Studies from the University of Stirling^[13] and returned there to complete a Master of Letters in Creative Writing, graduating with Merit in 2015.^[13][11] As of 2023, he is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.^[15]

Armstrong hosts workshops and conferences around youth violence, substance abuse and gang culture in schools and prisons.^[10] He has worked with the Violence Reduction Unit and Community Justice Scotland^[16] and other organisations involved in violence prevention, such as Medics Against Violence.^[17] In 2022, he spoke at the annual School Leaders Scotland conference and continues to work within the community.^[18][19]

In 2021, Armstrong wrote and starred in a short film for the Edinburgh International Book Festival Infectious Nihilism and Small Metallic Pieces of Hope^[20] directed by James Price.^[21] Later that year, he presented a BBC documentary, Scotland the Rave with IWC Media, which was subsequently nominated for a BAFTA Scotland and Royal Television Society Scotland award.^[22]

At the 2023 Education Scotland 'Scottish Attainment Challenge' conference, Armstrong gave a keynote speech based around his lived experience of education, gang violence, substance misuse and recovery from addiction.^[23]

During the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2023, Armstrong hosted James Kelman and spoke around difficulties in working-class representation, "cultural banishment" and Kelman's new work, 'God's Teeth and Other Phenomena'.^[24]

Armstrong wrote and presented a three-part BBC Scotland documentary series, Street Gangs^[25][26] exploring current Scottish gang culture, including the recent impact of social media, drill music / roadman culture, and his lived experience as an ex-gang member, which aired in October 2023 and was featured on BBC iPlayer.^[27][28][29]

Armstrong is an ambassador for The Hope Collective, a London-based anti-violence organisation, formed originally to support the 20th anniversary legacy campaign for Damilola Taylor.^[30]

In June 2024, New College Lanarkshire inducted Armstrong as an honorary lecturer to celebrate the launch of their Undergraduate School in partnership with the University of the West of Scotland, offering the first degree level study in North Lanarkshire,^[31][32] alongside others including author and broadcaster Damian Barr, a fellow North Lanarkshire native.

Later in 2024, Armstrong joined a panel of experts at the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) national conference alongside Karyn McCluskey and Maureen McKenna OBE to discuss early intervention and prevention,^[33] where First Minister of Scotland John Swinney also delivered an address.

Awards and honours

In April 2023, Granta included Armstrong on their "Best of Young British Novelists" list,^[5][6] an honour presented every ten years "to the twenty most significant British novelists under forty."^[7]

Year	Title	Award	Category	Result	Ref.
2021	The Young Team	Betty Trask Prize and Awards	Betty Trask Award	Won	[2]
		Scots Language Awards	Scots Book of the Year	Won	[34]
		Saltire Society Literary Awards	Scottish First Book of the Year	Shortlisted	[35]
		Somerset Maugham Award	—	Won	[36][3]
2022	Scotland the Rave	BAFTA Scotland	Single Documentary	Nominated	[37]
		RTS Scotland	Documentary and Specialist Factual	Nominated	[38]
	The Cloud Factory	Granta Best of Young British Novelists	—	Won	[39][40][41]

Publication

Novels

• The Young Team (Picador, 2020)^[42]
• Raveheart (4th Estate, forthcoming 04/26) ^[43]

Short works

• Landit (The Middle of a Sentence: Short Prose Anthology, The Common Breath, 2020)^[44]
• The Jakit, Mysticism n PPK Resurrection (Scottish Book Trust, 2022)^[45]
• The Cloud Factory (Granta, 2023)^[46]

Translated

• La Gang - Italian translation of The Young Team (Guanda, 2021)^[47]
• The Young Team - Spanish translation (Automática Editorial, 2022)^[48]

Filmography

• Scotland the Rave – single documentary (IWC Media, 2021)^[42]
• Street Gangs – documentary series (Tern Media, 2023)^[26]

References

1. Villalba, Juanjo (21 December 2022). "Graeme Armstrong: 'Nostalgia has its place but there is a younger Scottish generation, their stories matter'". EL PAÍS English. Archived from the original on 29 January 2023. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
2. "Betty Trask Prize". The Society of Authors. 8 May 2020. Archived from the original on 2 December 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
3. "Somerset Maugham Awards". The Society of Authors. 8 May 2020. Archived from the original on 13 April 2023. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
4. Ravindran, Manori (19 April 2021). "'The Young Team,' Acclaimed Novel About Scotland Gang Culture, Gets TV Adaptation By Synchronicity Films (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
5. Schaub, Michael (13 April 2023). "'Granta' Names 20 Best Young British Novelists". Kirkus Reviews. Archived from the original on 14 April 2023. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
6. Shaffi, Sarah (13 April 2023). "Granta reveals its pick of future star British novelists". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 13 April 2023. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
7. "Best of Young British Novelists 5". Granta. Archived from the original on 5 April 2023. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
8. "Granta 'Best of Young British Novelists' author Graeme Armstrong's RAVEHEART Pre-Empted by 4th Estate". Blake Friedmann. 15 November 2024. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
9. Preston, Alex (22 February 2020). "Graeme Armstrong: 'When I stopped taking drugs, I felt a kind of loneliness'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 28 November 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
10. O'Neill, Christina (19 May 2021). "Graeme Armstrong on The Young Team, leaving the gang life behind and his journey to literary success". GlasgowLive. Archived from the original on 17 August 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
11. 'I walked into uni as a ned and left with a Masters', Laura Boyd, STV News, 22 May 2021
12. "Ex-gang member and Young Team author Graeme Armstrong on the lonely road to redemption". HeraldScotland. 7 March 2020. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
13. "Graeme Armstrong". Pan Macmillan. Archived from the original on 2 October 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
14. "Graeme Armstrong – Standard English is oor Second Language". Literature Alliance Scotland. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
15. "Two Strathclyders on once-a-decade Best Young British Novelists list". www.strath.ac.uk. University of Strathclyde. 18 April 2023. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
16. "Community justice exhibition opens at University of Stirling | About". University of Stirling. 20 October 2021. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
17. BBC Scotland. "A brush with death led Callum to make a life changing decision". X (formerly Twitter). Retrieved 17 October 2023.
18. "School Leaders Scotland – Take a leap and join the leaders!". Retrieved 24 May 2023.
19. "Graeme Armstrong". Blake Friedmann. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
20. Infectious Nihilism and Small Metallic Pieces of Hope (Short 2021) - IMDb, retrieved 15 May 2023
21. Reading Scotland: Graeme Armstrong, Welcome tae Airdrie, retrieved 15 May 2023
22. "Graeme Armstrong — News". Blake Friedmann. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
23. "Why the Scottish Attainment Challenge requires even more collective action | Tes". www.tes.com. Retrieved 1 September 2023.
24. "Watch online: James Kelman: Class Act". www.edbookfest.co.uk. Retrieved 1 September 2023.
25. "BBC Scotland - Street Gangs, Series 1, Episode 1". BBC. 26 September 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
26. "New BBC documentary on 'young team' culture to air next week". Glasgow Times. 25 September 2023. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
27. "Writer who left life of violence behind to present BBC Scotland gang culture series". The Scotsman. 5 April 2023. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
28. "Tern TV - Home Page". Tern. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
29. Wray, Daniel Dylan (16 October 2023). "'I've never been more dangerous than when I was 14': an ex-member of Scotland's teen gangs fights back". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
30. "Ambassadors". Hopecollective. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
31. "College and university partnership launches first joint undergraduate school". The Herald. 10 June 2024. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
32. "Undergraduate Degrees". New College Lanarkshire. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
33. COSLA (1 August 2024). "Impressive range of speakers announced for the biggest event in Scottish Local Government calendar". COSLA. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
34. "Top Scots tips from Scots Book o the Year 2021 winner Graeme Armstrong". Scottish Book Trust. Retrieved 1 September 2023.
35. "Scotland's National Book Awards 2021 Shortlists". The Saltire Society. Archived from the original on 15 March 2023. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
36. "Graeme Armstrong". Blake Friedmann. Archived from the original on 31 October 2021. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
37. "2022 Scotland Single Documentary | BAFTA Awards". awards.bafta.org. Retrieved 1 September 2023.
38. "RTS Scotland Awards 2022 | Winners". Royal Television Society. 31 October 2022. Retrieved 1 September 2023.
39. "Graeme Armstrong". Granta. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
40. Teddy Jamieson (20 April 2023). "Granta: Novelists list shows how much society has changed for better". HeraldScotland. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
41. "Granta: Eleanor Catton and Saba Sams make Best of Young British Novelists list". BBC News. 13 April 2023. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
42. "The Young Team by Graeme Armstrong". www.panmacmillan.com. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
43. "4th Estate pre-empts 'love letter to rave' from Graeme Armstrong in 'hotly contested race'". The Bookseller. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
44. "The Middle of a Sentence: Short Prose Anthology". Books from Scotland. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
45. "The Jakit, Mysticism n PPK Resurrection by Graeme Armstrong". Scottish Book Trust. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
46. "The Cloud Factory". 27 April 2023. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
47. "La gang". Guanda (in Italian). Retrieved 24 May 2023.
48. "The Young Team | Automática Editorial". automaticaeditorial.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 24 May 2023.