I have measured out my life in Arsenal Fixtures, and any event of any significance has a footballing shadow. When did my first real love affair end? The day after a disappointing 2-2 draw at home to Coventry.
For a man to chronicle his life in match reports may be a mark of his ingenuity. It is certainly a measure of his obsession. Nick Hornby's affliction first took hold in 1968 when, as a sombre eleven-year-old, he saw Arsenal beat Stoke City (1-0 from a penalty rebound). From that first momentous afternoon, and for the next twenty-four years, the swings and shifts of his own life became inextricably linked with the changing fortunes of his team. The blind faith of childhood, adolescent alienation, adult neuroses - all were played out on the terraces at Highbury. A brilliant blend of personal insight and reportage, Fever Pitch is not just about goals and rain and semi-final replays. It's also about suburbia, death, sex and ambition. It is the most memorable picture ever produced of what is to be a fan. Fellow sufferers, and those who have to live with them, will recognise the symptoms, no matter what the team, or what the obsession.
'Funny, wise and true'
Roddy Doyle
'A brilliant book by one of the best writers around - not just a book about football, but a book about love, death and the feather-cut'
Julie Burchill
'A lovely book, by turns vivid, wise, sad, jubilant, enraged and very, very funny. I read it in one sitting'
Pete Davies |
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Nick Hornby meets Tony Adams
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0,6903,361947,00.html
Arsenal's official website
http://www.arsenal.com/index.asp
Colin Firth Website
http://www.firth.com/
Colin Firth Fan Listing
http://www.twelvenoon.com/colin/
Arsenal's official website
http://www.arsenal.com/index.asp
Swot up on Arsenal
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Arsenal-F.C.
Highbury past and present
http://www.arsenal.com/emiratesstadium/article.asp?
article=234760&Title=Stars+attend+time+capsule+ceremony&lid=the+stadium+-+Latest+News
Football Idols
http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?article=215524&
title=Idol%20Week:%20Gilberto,%20Peyton%20&%20Hornby
First Football Memory
http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?article=218194&
title=PLUS:%20Hornby's%20first%20football%20memory
Buy a Hornby football t-shirt
http://www.philosophyfootball.com/view_item.php?pid=68 |
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