Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
Graeme Armstrong (author)
Scottish author From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
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] and has been commissioned as a BBC drama production as of March, 2025.[5] Armstrong has been announced as screenwriter and executive producer.
In 2023, Granta included Armstrong on their ‘Best of Young British Novelists’ list,[6][7] an honour presented every ten years to the twenty most significant British novelists under forty.[8]
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 Adolescence (TV series) ) [9] and is a dystopian rave comedy.
Remove ads
Biography
Summarize
Perspective
Armstrong is from Airdrie, Scotland.[10][11] As a teenager he was involved in North Lanarkshire's 'young team' territorial gang culture as a member of the Young Mavis, from Glenmavis.[10][12] 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.[11]
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.[13][12] During his time in gangs, he struggled with alcohol abuse, drug addiction and violence.[14][11] 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.[10][11][12][15]
In 2013, Armstrong received a 2:1 Bachelor of Arts undergraduate degree in English Studies from the University of Stirling[14] and returned there to complete a Master of Letters in Creative Writing, graduating with Merit in 2015.[14][12] As of 2023, he is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.[16]
In 2021, Armstrong wrote and starred in a short film for the Edinburgh International Book Festival Infectious Nihilism and Small Metallic Pieces of Hope[17] directed by James Price.[18] 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.[19]
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'.[20]
Armstrong wrote and presented a three-part BBC Scotland documentary series, Street Gangs[21][22] 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.[23][24][25]
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.[26]
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,[27][28] 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,[29] where First Minister of Scotland John Swinney also delivered an address.
As of 2025, Armstrong runs a violence prevention educational event series, ‘STREET BELONGING’ for school pupils, leaders and in the prison estate across Scotland, working with organisations such as Community Justice Scotland[30] and Medics Against Violence.[31] He is an associate for the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice [32] and currently sits on the Strategic Advisory Board for the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit[33]
Remove ads
Awards and honours
In April 2023, Granta included Armstrong on their "Best of Young British Novelists" list,[6][7] an honour presented every ten years "to the twenty most significant British novelists under forty."[8]
Remove ads
Publication
Novels
Short works
Translated
Filmography
References
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads