Adrian is a double BAFTA award-winning filmmaker working across drama, documentary, comedy and television commercials.

Graeme Armstrong: ‘When I stopped taking drugs, I felt a kind

They were brilliant, hyper, hilarious, but always with a rippling undercurrent of unpredictability, always an unspoken knowledge between the lassies that despite how good the night is, if one of the boys decides to start, we boost. I wouldn’t say I sanitised it, but I rewrote in a way that was more legible, and with an awareness of the fact that there would be people who would be reading this book and may struggle. Graeme Armstrong on The Young Team, gang violence and Trainspotting Inspired by his own experiences in an Airdrie gang, Graeme Armstrong’s debut novel is an instant Scottish classic.One thing he said at that event which continued to strike me throughout the book is that Azzy's thoughts and feelings play out almost entirely internally. On one hand it is a form of “poverty tourism”, where the higher classes indulge, at a distance, in descriptions of the ways of the lower classes.

Graeme Armstrong on The Young Team, gang - The Skinny Graeme Armstrong on The Young Team, gang - The Skinny

I felt represented in a book for the first time – and if I hadn’t picked that book up, I’d be dead or in prison by now,” he said.

Fully written in dialect, but a slightly different dialect to Trainspotting, I don't think it makes this a hard read, providing the reader has some understanding of the Scottish accent and pronunciation. I’m fluent in Scheme Scots Dialect so not only understood the language but could relate to people and situations throughout the book.

The Young Team by Graeme Armstrong review – a swaggering

After that, he threw himself into his studies, reading on his lunch breaks and studying after school and hanging out with the gang at the weekend. The book is written in the vernacular and took me a few pages to get into, but once I did the banter was brilliant. Ben was part of the writing team on CBBC’s Jamie Johnson and his episode End Game was shortlisted for the Children’s BAFTA awards, International Emmys and Royal Television Society awards.His gang, The Young Team, are his brothers and he will do, and frequently does do, anything for them. This is certainly a step above most gang culture novels, there are some lovely and powerful moments in here. Already, there is a deep respect for this story, shared responsibility around working-class representation and the handling of important themes of gang violence, poverty, addiction and mental health. Graeme said of the adaptation, “I am absolutely buzzing to be working with Claire Mundell at Synchronicity and the team to develop The Young Team for the screen.

The Young Team - Google Books The Young Team - Google Books

This book is about both of these types, and we find ourselves hoping and praying that those on the dark pathway will somehow find the light. In my own experience, when I stopped hanging about with gangs and stopped taking drugs and moved to the city, I felt a kind of loneliness. It is impossible not to feel sympathy for those trapped in the confines of this life, and to feel admiration for those who make their way out of it.Through thick and thin, your young team is there for you, your tags scrawled upon walls and lampposts of schemes making your mark, leaving a historical record of you and who you are next to tags of old. My parents have money, my parents are still together, I was encouraged to study, it was assumed that I’d be intelligent and academic, I was supported through school by teachers because I was seen as smart because I spoke “well”.