Nick Hornby Biography Quotes 6 Report mistakes

Early life and education
Nick Hornby, born Nicholas Peter John Hornby on 17 April 1957 in Redhill, Surrey, England, became one of the most widely read English novelists and screenwriters of his generation. He grew up in the Thames Valley and attended Maidenhead Grammar School before reading English at Jesus College, Cambridge. Literature, pop music, and football shaped his sensibility early; he was an avid reader, an obsessive listener, and a devoted Arsenal supporter, interests that later gave his writing its blend of cultural specificity and emotional reach. His father, Sir Derek Hornby, a prominent British business executive, was a notable figure in his early life and remained a presence as Hornby entered public life.

Breakthrough and early books
After university Hornby taught and freelanced, writing criticism and cultural commentary while he refined the voice that would become his trademark. His breakthrough came with Fever Pitch (1992), a memoir told through the highs and lows of following Arsenal. The book is as much about family, identity, and the consolations of fandom as it is about football. It won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year and helped recast sports writing as a venue for literary memoir. Fever Pitch was later adapted twice for cinema: a 1997 British film starring Colin Firth and a 2005 American remake by Peter and Bobby Farrelly with Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon.

Fiction, themes, and adaptations
Hornby followed with High Fidelity (1995), a novel about a London record shop owner whose lists and playlists cannot shield him from the messiness of love and adulthood. Stephen Frears directed the acclaimed 2000 film adaptation, with John Cusack transposing the story to Chicago. About a Boy (1998) widened Hornby's canvas, pairing an aimless bachelor with a self-reliant preteen to explore responsibility and friendship; Chris and Paul Weitz adapted it for a 2002 film starring Hugh Grant and Nicholas Hoult. How to Be Good (2001) examined moral aspiration and everyday compromise through a family in flux.

A Long Way Down (2005) wove together four voices in a darkly comic story about despair and solidarity and became a 2014 film with Pierce Brosnan and Toni Collette. Juliet, Naked (2009) returned Hornby to music-obsessed characters and the bonds between artists and fans; Jesse Peretz's 2018 adaptation starred Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke, and Chris O'Dowd. He also wrote Slam (2007), a young adult novel about sudden responsibility and resilience, and Funny Girl (2014), a comic novel about a 1960s television star navigating fame and creativity.

Later fiction has continued to probe contemporary relationships and cultural fault lines. State of the Union (2019), written as a series of sharp, dialogue-driven vignettes, dissected a marriage in weekly pub conversations and later appeared as a book companion to the television series. Just Like You (2020) traced an unlikely cross-generational romance in modern London, bringing Hornby's humane humor to questions of class, politics, and taste.

Screenwriting and television
Hornby extended his storytelling into screenwriting with distinctive adaptations. An Education (2009), adapted from Lynn Barber's memoir and directed by Lone Scherfig, earned him Academy Award and BAFTA nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay; the film was produced by Amanda Posey and Finola Dwyer and featured a breakout performance by Carey Mulligan. Wild (2014), adapted from Cheryl Strayed's memoir and directed by Jean-Marc Vallee, earned wide praise, as did Brooklyn (2015), adapted from Colm Toibin's novel, directed by John Crowley, produced by Dwyer and Posey, and starring Saoirse Ronan; Brooklyn brought Hornby a second Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

For television he created Love, Nina (2016), adapted from Nina Stibbe's letters, and wrote State of the Union (2019), a short-form series starring Rosamund Pike and Chris O'Dowd that showcased his gift for crisp, revealing dialogue. A second season followed with Brendan Gleeson and Patricia Clarkson, again using compressed conversations to explore long relationships in transition.

Essays, music, and criticism
Alongside fiction, Hornby has been a prolific essayist. Songbook (published in the UK as 31 Songs, 2002) distilled his passion for pop into reflective pieces on tracks that shaped his imagination, from soul and guitar pop to singer-songwriters. His long-running column Stuff I've Been Reading for The Believer generated a series of essay collections, including The Polysyllabic Spree, Housekeeping vs. The Dirt, Shakespeare Wrote for Money, and Ten Years in the Tub, which together form a decade-plus chronicle of reading, listening, and watching as a writer and fan. In music, he collaborated with Ben Folds on the 2010 album Lonely Avenue, for which Hornby supplied lyrics, blending storytelling with piano-pop craft.

Advocacy, collaborations, and personal life
Hornby's work often intersects with community and advocacy. With Virginia Bovell, a leading figure in autism education, he became involved in efforts to support autistic children and their families; proceeds from Speaking with the Angel (2000), a short story anthology he edited with contributions from writers such as Zadie Smith, Roddy Doyle, Irvine Welsh, and others, supported educational initiatives for autistic children, including the TreeHouse School that Bovell helped establish. He has also been associated with Ambitious about Autism, the charity that grew out of the TreeHouse movement.

His later partnership and marriage with producer Amanda Posey linked his literary and screen careers; Posey was instrumental in bringing An Education and Brooklyn to the screen, working closely with Hornby and fellow producer Finola Dwyer. Beyond film and publishing, Hornby co-founded the Ministry of Stories in East London with Lucy Macnab and Ben Payne, a writing and mentoring center for young people inspired by community-based creative education. Throughout, Arsenal has remained a personal throughline and a recurring touchstone in his public persona, the club that anchored Fever Pitch and symbolized the way culture can bind people to time and place.

Later work and ongoing influence
Hornby continued to publish across genres into the 2020s. In Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius (2022), he juxtaposed the lives and work ethics of Charles Dickens and Prince to meditate on creativity and productivity, an essayistic capstone to decades spent mapping the ways art resonates with everyday life. Meanwhile, his earlier novels found renewed life in new formats: High Fidelity inspired a 2020 series starring Zoe Kravitz, while Funny Girl was adapted for television as Funny Woman.

The signature Hornby blend of humor, melancholy, and pop-cultural literacy has influenced a generation of writers and screenwriters who treat music, film, and football not as ephemera but as emotional engines in ordinary lives. His collaborations with directors like Stephen Frears, Lone Scherfig, Jean-Marc Vallee, and John Crowley, and with producers such as Amanda Posey and Finola Dwyer, helped establish a model for literary authors who move fluidly between page and screen. From record stores and bedrooms to pubs and press rooms, and from North London terraces to Hollywood soundstages, Nick Hornby has charted the modern inner life with generosity and wit, bringing readers and viewers along with the same enthusiasm that once carried him to the turnstiles at Highbury.

Our collection contains 6 quotes who is written by Nick, under the main topics: Witty One-Liners - Sports - Book - Humility - Sadness.