Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby (born 17 April 1957) is an English novelist and essayist who lives in Highbury, Islington (London). He frequently touches upon obsessive behavior (usually male, and related to two of his own interests: sports and music), and writes in what some say is a funny, entertaining style, containing hidden depths.

Biography

Hornby was educated at Maidenhead Grammar School and studied English at Jesus College, Cambridge. He started his career as a teacher, then left to work as a freelance journalist and later as a novelist.

Related Topics:
Maidenhead Grammar School - Jesus College, Cambridge - Novelist

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Hornby built his name first with Fever Pitch (1992) a memoir of his lifelong support of Arsenal F.C. That book, and his first and second novels, High Fidelity (1995) and About a Boy (1998), draw on the author's life experience and find particular appeal among men in their twenties and thirties.

Related Topics:
Fever Pitch - 1992 - Arsenal F.C. - High Fidelity - 1995 - About a Boy - 1998

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In 1999 he received the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Related Topics:
1999 - E.M. Forster Award - American Academy of Arts and Letters

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How to be Good (2001) marked a shift for Hornby in that it was his first novel to feature a female narrator. 2005 saw the publication of his most recent novel, A Long Way Down, and of Otherwise Pandemonium, which contains two short stories and is part of Penguin Books' 70th anniversary Pocket Penguin collection.

Related Topics:
How to be Good - 2001 - 2005 - A Long Way Down - Otherwise Pandemonium - Penguin Books

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Hornby has also written essays on various aspects of popular culture, and in particular has become something of an authoritative literary voice for pop music and mix tape enthusiasts. In addition to writing music reviews for publications such as The New Yorker, Hornby published the 2003 anthology 31 Songs (known in the United States as Songbook), a collection of essays on selected popular songs and (more often) the specific emotional resonance they carry for him. He also began writing a book review column, "Stuff I've Been Reading," for the monthly magazine The Believer; several of these articles are collected in The Polysyllabic Spree (2004).

Related Topics:
Mix tape - The New Yorker - 2003 - 31 Songs - United States - The Believer - The Polysyllabic Spree - 2004

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Hornby has also edited two sports-related anthologies, My Favourite Year and The Picador Book of Sports Writing, as well as the short-fiction collection Speaking with the Angel, to which he contributed the story "NippleJesus."

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