Graeme Armstrong

Graeme Armstrong is a Times bestselling, multi-award-winning author from Airdrie. His teenage years were spent within Scotland’s ‘young team’ gang culture. After studying English as an undergraduate at the University of Stirling, he completed a Master’s in Creative Writing and is currently a PhD doctoral researcher at the University of Strathclyde.

His debut novel, THE YOUNG TEAM, was published by Picador in 2020. He wrote and presented factual documentaries on Scottish rave culture, BAFTA and RTS Scotland nominated SCOTLAND THE RAVE (BBC, 2022), and a series on the evolution of Scottish gang culture, STREET GANGS (BBC, 2023) available now on iPlayer. He is an ambassador for The Hope Collective, Damilola Taylor’s legacy charity and an honorary lecturer at New College Lanarkshire. In 2023, he was named one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists, a once-in-a-decade literary honour.

Across Scotland and beyond, Graeme runs anti-violence outreach events in the community with young people and in the prison estate, using his past to fight for positive change.

Awards Graeme has won or been shortlisted for include:

Winner Somerset Maugham Award 2021.

Winner Betty Trask Award 2021.

Scots Book o the Year 2021.

Shortlisted Saltire First Book Award 2021.

BAFTA Scotland Single Doc Nominee 2022.

RTS Scotland Specialist Factual Nominee 2022.