The most compelling aspect of this book is explaining the social culture by showing the reader the depth of understanding that Azzy develops as he gets older, and explaining the reasoning behind his actions as he navigates through a life with many challenges. Despite the chaos that defined his teenage years, Graeme said he would be lying if he was not at times nostalgic looking back: “Being in the young team offered things like brotherhood, comradeship, excitement. Both authors grew up on estates with high levels of crime and violence, and limited opportunities for the people that live there. Now, with a Masters and publishing deal under his belt, Armstrong is just getting started; he’s already working on a new novel about rave culture. But, I grew up around, but thankfully never involved with the gangs and neds (non-educated delinquents) portrayed in the book, and I found it really difficult to sympathise with any characters in this book.

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

Graeme's ear for dialogue is truly exceptional and the book's characters all felt absolutely truthful and recognisable to me. Would you agree that there’s a certain nostalgia for your time in gangs that comes through in the book? There’s nothing I enjoy more than reading a novel set firmly in my country, and written in the language of my streets.I’m fluent in Scheme Scots Dialect so not only understood the language but could relate to people and situations throughout the book. I'd have liked to understand them better as people in their own right, though, on the same level as the male characters who are all multi dimensional. Like Azzy in The Young Team, Graeme grew up drinking with his pals at an abandoned mansion nicknamed The Crib before later joining their elders in the Young Mavis. Armstrong makes the language slam-dance and pirouette, using an endless variety of relishable words and phrases.

The Young Team by Graeme Armstrong | Waterstones

While it's a part of society that needs to be acknowledged in our stories, I'm not sure I would want to spend anymore time with the characters here.The novel covers social issues such as alcoholism, drug addiction (and importantly it clearly shows that you don't need to be a hard drug, heroin type, addict to be an addict), unemployment, mental health (importantly of young males who are forced to carry a bravado around this), poverty, gender, education, stereotyping and class. This has you crying, and then unable to put it down, eyes skipping to the bottom of the page amongst unbearable tension to see what happens to our Azzy.

The Young Team by Graeme Armstrong - Pan Macmillan The Young Team by Graeme Armstrong - Pan Macmillan

Graeme Armstrong is a vital voice in Scottish fiction deserving of the recognition and accolades afforded to a young Irvine Welsh. The only thing that stops it being a 5 star read for me is that I felt the female characters weren't fully realised, especially Azzy's poor maw. As with Welsh’s debut, ultimately there is no glamorisation of drugs, just the raw reality of addiction: “It’s only when yi try tae stop,” Azzy muses, “that the monster reveals itself.

They’re more likely to be inspired by London gang culture nowadays, he said, listening to "drill and grime" music instead of happy hardcore. In the meantime, he has begun consulting on the forthcoming drama with Synchronicity films – and “making sure they’ve got the right number of stripes on the trackies. He felt low and isolated, struggling through bouts of anxiety and depression during his time as a student.