Campbell Armstrong (25 February 1944 – 1 March 2013) was born Thomas Campbell Black and was a Scottish author who graduated with a degree in philosophy from the University of Sussex,

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. He taught creative writing from 1971 to 1974 at the State University of New York at Oswego; from 1975 to 1978 he taught at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

. He worked for some years as a fiction editor with various London publishing houses. After living for many years in England and the United States, he moved to Shannon Harbour, Ireland. He died on 1 March 2013, four days after his 69th birthday. His novels ''Assassins & Victims'' and ''The Punctual Rape'' won Scottish Arts Council Awards. ''The Last Darkness'' and ''White Rage'' were nominated for the Prix du Polar. His quartet of Glasgow novels consists of ''The Bad Fire'', ''The Last Darkness'', ''White Rage'', and ''Butcher''. He also wrote a memoir titled ''All That Really Matters'', retitled in the United States as ''I Hope You Have a Good Life''. Under his real name, "Campbell Black"—and under the pseudonym "Thomas Altman"—he wrote novelizations of movies including ''

Raiders of the Lost Ark ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. Set in 1936, the film stars Harrison Ford as Indiana ...

'' and '' Dressed to Kill'', as well as thrillers and horror novels. He co-wrote the 1980 novel ''The Homing'' with

Jeffrey Caine Jeffrey Caine (born 1944) is a British screenwriter. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2005 for '' The Constant Gardener''. He was educated at the University of Sussex and the University of Leeds The Uni ...

, under the pseudonym "Jeffrey Campbell." His work was originally influenced by

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

, and he ascribed a certain "dark aspect" of his writing to the opening scenes of ''

Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure a ...

''. Among other influences he included

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

, Fred Vargas, Kobo Abe, and

Albert Camus Albert Camus ( ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, journalist, world federalist, and political activist. He was the recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the s ...

. His books have been translated into French, German, Greek, Japanese, Italian, Hebrew and Polish.

Bibliography

# ''The Wanting'' (1966)* # ''Assassins & Victims'' (1969)* # ''The Punctual Rape'' (1970)* # ''Death's Head'' (1971)* # ''Brainfire'' (1977) # ''Letters from the Dead'' (1980)* # ''Dressed to Kill'' (Novelization) (1980)* # ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (Novelization) (1981) # ''Black Christmas'' (1983)** # ''Mr. Apology'' (1984)* # ''The Piper'' (1986)* # ''Jig'' (1987) # ''Mazurka'' (1988) # ''Mambo'' (1989) # ''Agents of Darkness'' (1991) # ''Asterisk'' (1992) # ''Concert of Ghosts'' (1992) # ''Jigsaw'' (1994) # ''Heat'' (1996) # ''Blackout'' (1996) # ''Silencer'' (1997) # ''Deadline'' (2000) as "Campbell Black" * as "Thomas Altman"

The Glasgow Novels

# ''Bad Fire'' (2002) # ''The Last Darkness'' (2003) # ''White Rage'' (2004) # ''Butcher'' (2006)

Memoir

# ''I Hope You Have a Good Life'' (UK title: ''All That Really Matters'') (2000)

Plays

# ''Death’s Head'' (BBC-TV) (1968) # ''And They Used to Star in Movies'' (Peacock, Dublin: Travers, Edinburgh; Body Politic, Chicago. Soho Poly, London) (1970) # ''The Trial of Mr. Punch on Charges of Cruelty'' (2008) # ''Whispering'' (radio play broadcast by the BBC in 2008)

References

External links

"An Interview with Campbell Armstrong"Official website
* 1944 births 2013 deaths Writers from Glasgow Academics from Glasgow Alumni of the University of Sussex Arizona State University faculty State University of New York at Oswego faculty Scottish male novelists {{Scotland-writer-stub