Photo: Alice Zoo
RAVEHEART, a love letter to rave and thrilling ride of a novel by Graeme Armstrong, has been acquired in a hotly contested pre-empt by HarperCollins imprint 4th Estate. A high NRG, whip-smart look at the state of modern Britain through the eyes of a disparate band of rave rebels, RAVEHEART is George Orwell’s 1984 meets cult classic film HUMAN TRAFFIC.
The novel will be published in Spring 2026 after Michelle Kane, Publishing Director, bought UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) from Juliet Pickering. In a separate deal, multi-BAFTA winning production company Warp Films (THIS IS ENGLAND, FOUR LIONS, EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE) have optioned TV/Film rights from Conrad Williams.
‘I feel lucky to have both my dream imprint at 4th Estate and editor, Michelle Kane, at the helm on this fever dream of a novel which has taken the best bit of a decade to create,’ said Graeme. ‘While the majority of my work on the page, screen and community deals with hard-hitting social themes, RAVEHEART speaks to the pure joy of rave culture we experienced first-hand in its mid-2000s renaissance in Scotland, and to an ever more challenging world beyond. The incredible heritage of Scottish rave pioneers before us, combined with our generation’s bedroom bootlegging PCDJ craze made for years of endless energy (albeit some chemical) pure passion and mad memories. These are the nostalgic driving forces of RAVEHEART, and I can’t wait to share it with the rave and literary communities. Glowsticks at the ready, troops. We’re going in.’
‘Graeme Armstrong is a once in a generation writer – vivid, uncompromising, whip-smart and powerful – and this novel comes at the reader with the kind of force that challenges their world view,’ Michelle Kane added. ‘Terrifyingly prescient and uproariously funny, RAVEHEART is set to be a modern classic and to say that I am excited to be working with a writer like Graeme who is such a singular and original talent is to understate it – we have huge ambition for him at 4th Estate and we are extremely excited and honoured to have him on the list.’
Juliet Pickering says: ‘RAVEHEART is like nothing else – playing with form, politics, character, place – and it should be injected into our veins: a fizzing, witty, total high of a novel, brilliantly deconstructing the bigotry of modern politics, and one of the best novels on male friendship I’ve ever read. I can’t wait for everyone else to feel its heady, knockout punch to the brain.’
William Patterson – better known as DJ Turbo – is living a soulless existence after his glory days as resident spinner at a local Coatbridge ice rink, The Time Capsule, have been snatched from him. As a far-right UK regime sweeps to power, ‘The New Greatest Britishest Party’ cracks down on youth, culture, drugs and – the final straw – electronica. Incensed by a blanket ban of their beloved tunes, Turbo and his comrades launch a rave revolt – resurrecting the illegal warehouse parties of the past in this new darker, monolithic Greatest Britain, as a powerful act of resistance.
But, as the political situation escalates and secret police surveil every corner of society, Turbo and his troops fly ever closer to the sun in the dangerous world of the anti-rave abolitionist paramilitary. Mixing classic hardcore anthems, nu-gen euphoria enthusiasts and psychotropic chemical courtships, they will fight the war for the rave. Deciding who to trust… and who may betray the cause is everything. The future of the whole nation is on the line… can Turbo be the hero not just of rave, but of Scotland?
Hilarious, tragic and incredibly clever all at once, this unique, narcotic trip of a novel is a modern, meta, mayhem-filled cultural coup d'état and cult-classic in the making, written in an inimitable and energetic voice, from one of the most electrifying young writers in Britain today.
About Graeme Armstrong
Graeme Armstrong is a Scottish writer from Airdrie. His teenage years were spent within North Lanarkshire’s gang culture. Alongside overcoming his own struggles with drug addiction, alcohol abuse and violence, he defied expectation to read English as an undergraduate at the University of Stirling; where, after graduating with honours, he returned to study a Masters’ in Creative Writing. He is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Strathclyde.
Graeme regularly works within the community visiting prisons and schools, giving talks on his experiences of gang-culture and substance abuse. He promotes a message of anti-violence and abstinence-based recovery.
His bestselling debut novel, THE YOUNG TEAM (Picador, 2020), is inspired by his experiences. It won a Betty Trask Award, a Somerset Maugham Award, and the Scots Book o the Year 2021.
In 2021, Graeme presented SCOTLAND THE RAVE, a documentary broadcast by the BBC that explored Scotland’s rave and PCDJ culture, subsequently nominated for a BAFTA Scotland and RTS Scotland Award 2022. His second documentary series, STREET GANGS, where Graeme reflects on his own past as an ex-gang member to try to understand life inside a modern gang, aired on the BBC in October 2023.
In 2023, Graeme was chosen as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists, an accolade that is awarded once a decade.
Praise for Graeme Armstrong
‘Graeme Armstrong is the real deal.’ – Douglas Stuart
‘One of the most admired young voices in British fiction’ – Mike Wade, The Times
‘Has proved the novel form is still alive and kicking… a genuine literary phenomenon… Indeed, Armstrong is that rare thing, a writer whose work has become a tangible part of a social material, as has Armstrong himself.’ – James Taylor, Metal Magazine
‘Armstrong makes language slam-dance and pirouette, using an endless variety of relishable words and phrases.’ – The Guardian
‘His work is vivid, dynamic and sharp as a whip; his capacity to surprise the reader distinct and powerful.’ – Janice Galloway
