Graeme Armstrong (author)

Last updated

Graeme Armstrong
Graeme Armstrong in 2020.jpg
Born1991
Airdrie, Scotland
Alma mater University of Stirling
Notable awards

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]

Contents

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 Graeme Armstrong as a young gang member, Airdrie 2006.jpg
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]

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

Publication

Novels

Short works

Translated

Filmography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motherwell F.C.</span> Association football club in Motherwell, Scotland

Motherwell Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, which plays in the Scottish Premiership. Motherwell have not dropped out of the top flight of Scottish football since 1985, and have lifted one trophy in that time – the Scottish Cup in 1991.

The Glasgow dialect, also called Glaswegian, varies from Scottish English at one end of a bipolar linguistic continuum to the local dialect of West Central Scots at the other. Therefore, the speech of many Glaswegians can draw on a "continuum between fully localised and fully standardised". Additionally, the Glasgow dialect has Highland English and Hiberno-English influences owing to the speech of Highlanders and Irish people who migrated in large numbers to the Glasgow area in the 19th and early 20th centuries. While being named for Glasgow, the accent is typical for natives across the full Greater Glasgow area and associated counties such as Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Dunbartonshire and parts of Ayrshire, which formerly came under the single authority of Strathclyde. It is most common in working class people, which can lead to stigma from members of other classes or those outside Glasgow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Local government in Scotland</span> System of state administration on a local level in Scotland

Local government in Scotland comprises thirty-two local authorities, commonly referred to as councils. Each council provides public services, including education, social care, waste management, libraries and planning. Councils receive the majority of their funding from the Scottish Government, but operate independently and are accountable to their local electorates. Councils raise additional income via the Council Tax, a locally variable domestic property tax, and Business rates, a non-domestic property tax.

<i>Granta</i> British literary magazine and publisher

Granta is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story's supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make real." In 2007, The Observer stated: "In its blend of memoirs and photojournalism, and in its championing of contemporary realist fiction, Granta has its face pressed firmly against the window, determined to witness the world."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottish nationalism</span> Political ideology

Scottish nationalism promotes the idea that the Scottish people form a cohesive nation and national identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Easterhouse</span> Housing estate and suburb of Glasgow, Scotland

Easterhouse is a suburb of Glasgow, Scotland, six miles east of the city centre on land gained from the county of Lanarkshire as part of an expansion of Glasgow before the Second World War. The area is on high ground north of the River Clyde and south of the River Kelvin and Campsie Fells.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Convention of Scottish Local Authorities</span> National association of Scottish councils

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) is the national association of Scottish councils and acts as an employers' association for its 32 member authorities.

Gang-related organised crime in the United Kingdom is concentrated around the cities of London, Manchester and Liverpool and regionally across the West Midlands region, south coast and northern England, according to the Serious Organised Crime Agency. With regard to street gangs the cities identified as having the most serious gang problems, which accounted for 65% of firearm homicides in England and Wales, were London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. Glasgow in Scotland also has a historical gang culture with the city having as many teenage gangs as London, which had six times the population, in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tahmima Anam</span> British writer, novelist and columnist.

Tahmima Anam is a Bangladeshi-born British writer, novelist and columnist. Her first novel, A Golden Age (2007), was the Best First Book winner of the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prizes. Her follow-up novel, The Good Muslim, was nominated for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize. She is the granddaughter of Abul Mansur Ahmed and daughter of Mahfuz Anam.

A ned is a hooligan, lout or petty criminal in Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nadifa Mohamed</span> Somali-British novelist (born 1981)

Nadifa Mohamed is a Somali-British novelist. She featured on Granta magazine's list "Best of Young British Novelists" in 2013, and in 2014 on the Africa39 list of writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define future trends in African literature. Her 2021 novel, The Fortune Men, was shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize, making her the first British Somali novelist to get this honour. She has also written short stories, essays, memoirs and articles in outlets including The Guardian, and contributed poetry to the anthology New Daughters of Africa. Mohamed was also a lecturer in Creative Writing in the Department of English at Royal Holloway, University of London until 2021. She became Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University in Spring 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stuart Armstrong</span> Scottish footballer (born 1992)

Stuart Armstrong is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Major League Soccer club Vancouver Whitecaps and the Scotland national team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broomhill F.C. (Scotland)</span> Association football club in Glasgow City, Scotland, UK

Broomhill Football Club is a Scottish football club that plays its home matches at Dumbarton Football Stadium in Dumbarton, West Dunbartonshire. They are members of the Scottish Lowland Football League, in the fifth tier of the Scottish football league system. The club was formed in 2014 as BSC Glasgow, a senior team associated with Broomhill Sports Club, a youth sports organisation based in the Broomhill area of Glasgow, and was elected to the Lowland League for the 2014–15 season. They originally shared with Maryhill F.C. at their Lochburn Park ground before relocating to Alloa in 2016. In 2021, the senior team split from Broomhill Sports Club, who launched a new BSC Glasgow team in the development division of the West of Scotland Football League, with the senior team being renamed Broomhill F.C. and retaining the Lowland League place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kieran Tierney</span> Scotland international footballer (born 1997)

Kieran Tierney is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Premier League club Arsenal and the Scotland national team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jenny Gilruth</span> Scottish politician (born 1984)

Jennifer Madeleine Gilruth is a Scottish politician who has served as the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills since 2023. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), she has been the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Mid Fife and Glenrothes since 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karamoko Dembélé</span> Scottish footballer (born 2003)

Karamoko Kader Dembélé is a professional footballer who plays as a winger for Queens Park Rangers, on loan from Brest. Born in England, he moved to Scotland before his first birthday and lived there until aged 19. Dembélé represented both Scotland and England at youth level, lastly at under-18 level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Talisk</span> Scottish folk band

Talisk are a Scottish folk band composed of Mohsen Amini, Benedict Morris, and Charlie Galloway. The band rose to prominence after winning the 2015 BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award and the MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards "Folk Band of the Year" category in 2017.

Aaron Buchanan Hickey is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a full-back for Premier League club Brentford and the Scotland national team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Màiri McAllan</span> Scottish politician (born 1993)

Màiri Louise McAllan is a Scottish politician serving as Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy since 2024. She previously served as Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition from 2023 to 2024 and Minister for Environment, Biodiversity and Land Reform from 2021 to 2023. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), she has been the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Clydesdale since 2021. McAllan is a former corporate solicitor, who also served as a special advisor to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon prior to her election to the Scottish Parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meghan Gallacher</span> Scottish Conservative politician

Meghan Gallacher is a British politician who has served as Deputy Leader of the Scottish Conservatives from 2022 to 2024. She has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Central Scotland region since 2021. Gallacher was a councillor for the Motherwell West ward from 2017 to 2022, serving as the Conservatives party's group leader in the North Lanarkshire Council.

References

  1. 1 2 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. 1 2 "Betty Trask Prize". The Society of Authors . 8 May 2020. Archived from the original on 2 December 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  3. 1 2 "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. 1 2 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. 1 2 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. 1 2 "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. 1 2 3 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. 1 2 3 4 5 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. 1 2 3 4 '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. 1 2 3 "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. 1 2 "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. 1 2 "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.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.