The Young Team

Graeme Armstrong Press Reviews

'A swaggering, incendiary debut . . . The non-standard English forges a dazzling poetry of its own . . . pitches Armstrong straight into the first division of Scottish writers.' -- Jude Cook - Guardian

'The Young Team is a landmark in Scottish literature. It reminds me of Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby.' -- Damian Barr, author of Maggie & Me

'Armstrong's hard-hitting novel is Trainspotting for a new generation.' - Independent

'Raw and lyrical . . . written in a voice that recalls Irvine Welsh and Alan Warner - dialect that fizzes off the page.'  - Observer

'A gripping debut novel . . . he is quite a phenomenon . . . one of the most admired young voices in British fiction.' -- Mike Wade - The Times

'A riveting debut novel . . . it crackles with teenage energy . . . has already engendered a buzz that many other debut novelists would kill for.' - Herald

It is Trainspotting meets Clockwork Orange in this depiction of gang life in North Lanarkshire . . . it gives us a voice from a place - geographically and socio-economically - we don't often hear from. -- John Self - The Times

The Young Team is a book full of guts, power, humour and humanity. -- Kerry Hudson, author of Lowborn Bright, brittle and boiling with immediacy . . . His work is vivid, dynamic and sharp as a whip. -- Janice Galloway, author of The Trick is to Keep Breathing Phenomenal. It's been ages since I read a book so funny, visceral, or powerful. -- David Whitehouse, author of Bed -