Nick Hornby Nick Hornby was born April 17, 1957 in Maidenhead, England. He is an author and essayist best known for the film adaptations of his novels. Hornby’s father, Sir Derek Hornby, was a businessman whose success allowed Hornby the privileges of the English middleclass. However, his parents divorced when he was only eleven. To cope with his fractured family, Hornby became a tremendous (if not slightly irrational) Arsenal fan. Echoes of this can be seen in many of his works, where sports provide healing or escape for his main characters. Hornby studied English at the prestigious Cambridge University, and by 1983 was beginning his freelance writing career. In 1992, Hornby’s first book finally hit the shelves. It was titled Fever Pitch, and it was an autobiographical work of non-fiction. The book was an instant and complete success, winning the author the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. Two film adaptations of Fever Pitch have been made. The first was an English production starring Colin Firth in 1997. The film retained the original English backdrop and focus on the football/soccer team. The second production was in 2005 with Drew Barrymore and former Saturday Night Live funnyman Jimmy Fallon. The action was moved to Boston and the team changed to the Red Sox. For their roles in this film, both Barrymore and Fallon were nominated for numerous Teen Choice Awards.
Hornby’s second novel debuted in 1995. It was entitled High Fidelity, and much like Fever Pitch, it proved to be an immediate success. This novel was also adapted into a highly successful American film by the same title. Released in 2000, it starred John and Joan Cusack, Lisa Bonet, Tim Robbins, Catherine Zeta Jones and a little known Jack Black, who ended up winning a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for his supporting role. As in Fever Pitch, the scene of action was moved from London to Chicago. Following in his pattern of success, Hornby’s third book did well as a stand-alone novel and very well as a film adaptation. About a Boy was released in 1998 and made into a film in 1999 starring Hugh Grant, Rachel Weisz, Nicholas Hoult and Toni Collette. The novel concerns a depressed Englishman living off a more than ample inheritance, but who eventually find true happiness in a friendship he develops with a young boy. Adding to Hornby’s accolades, he received the E.M. Forster Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999. In 2002, Hornby wrote How to be Good, and in 2005 he completed A Long Way Down. He has also written two other words of non-fiction—31 Songs in 2003 and The Polysyllabic Spree in 2004. Dealing with questions of marriage and parenthood from the female perspective, How to be Good won Hornby the WH Smith Award for Fiction in 2002. In all likelihood, Hornby’s 2005 novel A Long Way Down will also find its way onto the silver screen. American actor Johnny Depp bought the film rights before the novel was even published.
Hornby and his wife Virginia Bovell finally decided to call it quits in 1998. They have one child together named Danny, who was born with severe autism. The personal effects of the disorder led Hornby to become a cofounder of TreeHouse, a British charity formed in 1997 to provide additional education to children suffering from autism. Many of the proceeds from Hornby’s anthology Speaking with the Angel (2000) went directly to this charity. Hornby and Bovell, although living separately, still meet everyday to care for their son. |
