Graeme Armstrong (author)

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

Armstrong is from Airdrie, Scotland.[8][9] As a teenager was involved with North Lanarkshire's gang culture as a member of the 'Young Mavis', from Glenmavis.[8][10] At fourteen, he was expelled from Airdrie Academy and began attending Coatbridge High School, where he joined another gang, the 'LL TOI' from Langloan, Coatbridge.[9]

Aged sixteen, following the deaths of three friends by heroin overdose[1] and after reading Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh, Armstrong pursued a route into higher education, and began to break away from gang life.[11][10] During his time in gangs, he struggled with drug addiction, alcohol abuse, and violence;[12][9] he "stopped taking drugs on Christmas Day 2012" and speaks candidly about having a Christian faith. His experiences inspired his debut novel, The Young Team, which is written in West Central Scots language.[8][9][10][13]

In 2013, Armstrong received a 2:1 Bachelor of Arts undergraduate degree in English Studies from University of Stirling[12] and returned to Stirling to complete a Master of Letters in Creative Writing, graduating with Merit in 2015.[12][10] He is currently undertaking a PhD the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.[14]

Armstrong hosts workshops about youth violence, substance abuse and gang culture in schools and prisons.[9] He has worked with the Violence Reduction Unit and Community Justice Scotland[15] and other organisations involved in violence prevention, such as Medics Against Violence[16] from Glasgow. In 2022, he spoke at the annual School Leaders Scotland conference and continues to work within the community.[17][18]

In 2021, Armstrong wrote and starred in a short film for the Edinburgh International Book Festival Infectious Nihilism and Small Metallic Pieces of Hope [19] directed by James Price.[20] 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.[21]

At the 2023 Education Scotland 'Scottish Attainment Challenge' conference, Armstrong gave a keynote speech based around his lived experience of education, gang violence and recovery from addiction and substance misuse.[22]

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'.[23]

Armstrong wrote and presented a three-part BBC Scotland documentary series, Street Gangs[24][25] exploring current Scottish gang culture including the recent impact of social media and drill music / roadman culture, and his lived experience as an ex-gang member, which aired in October 2023 and is featured on BBC iPlayer.[26][27][28]

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]

• The Young Team - novel (Picador, 2020)[37]
• Billy the Kid and the KO at the Coral - novel extract (Gutter, 2019)[38]
• Landit - short story (The Middle of a Sentence: Short Prose Anthology, The Common Breath, 2020) [39]
• The Mad Hoose - from memoir (Stryvling Press, 2021)[40]
• My Head Teacher Helped me Choose Life - essay (TES, 2021)[41]
• Standard English is oor Second Language - essay (Literature Alliance Scotland, 2021)[13]
• The Jakit, Mysticism n PPK Resurrection - from memoir (Scottish Book Trust, 2022)[42]
• La Gang - Italian translation of The Young Team (Guanda, 2021)[43]
• The Young Team - Spanish translation (Automática Editorial, 2022)[44]
• The Cloud Factory - from memoir (Granta, 2023)[45]

• Scotland the Rave – single documentary (IWC Media, 2021)[37]
• Street Gangs – documentary series (Tern Media, 2023) [25]