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Reading lists

Books to read if you’re going through a break-up

With the dawn of a new millennium about to break, the Nineties was a strange, floating decade of positivity, hope and something called the World Wide Web. 

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Books that defined the 1990s

A BBC Radio 4 Comedy Series

The Richest Man in Britain

All-star comedy about an ageing rock star and his search for fulfilment, written by Nick Hornby and Giles SmithDave Mabbutt is having a crisis. He’s the richest man in Britain, a bona fide rockstar with fans, fame and fortune. He even has a personal assistant called Mr. Tumble, who is in fact an elephant - but he’s not happy. When you have more money than sense life can have hilarious consequences. And how rock and roll does it really feel to have your mum at every gig?Dave’s crisis begins when he is persuaded to preview his 'drums-only' version of 1970s classic album, ‘Temple of the Human Mind’. Things don’t go to plan when he introduces ex-lead singer Andy to his new best friend and personal assistant, Mr Tumble the elephant. However, this is nothing compared to the drama that is unleashed when Dave’s mum is kidnapped. On the plus side, the international crisis does provide the perfect excuse to get rid of shed-loads of cash and take a trip overseas. Yet when the richest man in Britain buys some last-minute holiday Euros it promptly brings down the entire global monetary system…Written by Nick Hornby and Giles Smith, this radio comedy series stars Mark Williams (best known as Mr Weasley in the Harry Potter films) and Russell Tovey (star of TV’s Being Human) with a stellar line up of supporting cast members including Lydia Bellingham, Noddy Holder and Rosamund Pike, this is a laugh-out-loud comedy not to be missed.Writer Nick Hornby is a best-selling author with many of his books being adapted for film, including High Fidelity, About a Boy and Fever Pitch. Giles Smith is a Sunday Times journalist, New Statesman columnist and the writer of three books including Lost in Music, about life and growing up with music.Episode list:· The Interview · The Elephant in the Room · The Kidnap· The African Village · The Cultural Attache · The Meltdown Cast and creditsWritten by Nick Hornby and Giles SmithProduced by Lucy ArmitageDave Mabbutt - Mark WilliamsDom - Russell ToveyDave's Mum - Lynda BellinghamJane the Guardian Journalist - Kerry FoxAndy - Noddy HolderThe Lawyer - Gus BrownMr Green the Banker - Geoff McGivernDimitri the Kidnapper/Ken the Maintenance Man - Phil CornwellSophie/Waiter - Matt AddisNaomi, the Charity Worker - Ayesha AntoineFrancesca, The Cultural Adviser - Rosamund PikeFirst Broadcast BBC Radio 4, 6 Nov-11 Dec 2009©2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

A Particular Kind of Genius

Dickens and Prince

'A joyful examination of two artists from different centuries and the unlikely parallels in their life and work' Guardian 
 
'An ardent fan letter from Hornby that makes you want to reread Great Expectations whilst listening to Sign o'the Times' Vogue 
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The essential gift for lovers of Prince, Dickens and everyone in between! 
 
In Nick Hornby's completely joyous and original new book two great figures share the stage. Charles Dickens and Prince. Two wildly different artists who caught fire and lit up the world in ways no others could. Where did their magic come from? How did they work so hard and produce so much? How did they manage or give in to the restlessness and intensity of their creativity? How did they use it, and did it kill them? 
 
With wit, curiosity and deep admiration Nick Hornby traces their extraordinary lives - from their difficult beginnings to the women they fell for to their limitless energy for work, to their money and the movies - and brilliantly illuminates their very particular kind of genius. 
 
'I love this. It's smart and funny and elegantly persuasive' Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, author of Becoming Dickens

A joyful examination of two artists from different centuries and the unlikely parallels in their life and work

Well, here's something you didn't expect - a joint biography of Charles Dickens and the pocket-sized popster Prince. And why not? The Fever Pitch chappie explores the nature of genius and what unites the inimitable Boz and the Imp of the Perverse

I love this. It's smart and funny and elegantly persuasive

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, author of Becoming Dickens

From rocky beginnings to too-early endings, Hornby traces the lives of two very different artists and shows they have more in common than we might think. Dickens & Prince is a playful, illuminating book

An enjoyable and educational read that will leave fans of either figure positively enlightened

An ardent fan letter from Hornby that makes you want to reread Great Expectations whilst listening to Sign o'the Times

A winningly grounded manifesto for artists: forget the preciousness so often urged as the route to brilliance, and embrace prodigiousness instead &ndash; and don&rsquo;t forget to make sure you get paid

Beneath the surface of this fascinating biography there lies a warm and wise craft book about what it takes to make great art in any century

Hornby&rsquo;s admiration for his subjects is infectious . . . a zesty tribute to two cultural legends not often spoken about in the same breath

This pairing &ndash; two magnificent creatives, centuries and genres apart &ndash; makes stunning sense in the hands of their wisest, wittiest fan

Hornby&rsquo;s love for the work, for the sheer unbelievably prodigal output of both artists, is intense. And when he does write about Prince and sexuality, he is almost jarringly illuminating, particularly when he wrestles with Prince as shapeshifting sexual avatar

What could possibly connect Prince, the great twentieth century singer songwriter, and Charles Dickens, the great writer of classics usually stuffed into the hands of adolescents too early? What could these two geniuses, one born in 1812 in England, and the other in 1950s Minneapolis, have in common? 
 
For Nick Hornby, Dickens and Prince are two artists that compare to no others. At the young age of 24, they both had their breakthroughs, Prince with '1999' and Dickens with The Pickwick Papers. At 26, Prince released 'Purple Rain' and Dickens' Oliver Twist was published, and, by 30, both artists were huge stars. 
 
No one else had such a relentless work ethic and produced such a staggeringly original and enormous body of work. Where did their magic come from? How did they use it? And, in the end, did it kill them? 
 
Tracing their lives, from the early years to their relationships with women, their finances to their inability to stop working, Dickens and Prince is a brilliantly surprising and joyous uncovering of the essence of a very particular and unique type of genius.

Now The Major TV Series Funny Woman Starring Gemma Arterton

Funny Girl

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER SOON TO BE A TV SERIES STARRING GEMMA ARTERTON AND RUPERT EVERETT 
 
'Simply unputdownable' Guardian 
 
'Hilarious' Daily Telegraph 
 
'Highly entertaining' Sunday Times 
 _________________ 
 
Make them laugh, and they're yours forever . . . 
 
Barbara Parker is Miss Blackpool of 1964, but she doesn't want to be a beauty queen. She wants to make people laugh. 
 
So she leaves her hometown behind, takes herself to London, and overnight she becomes the lead in a new BBC comedy, Sophie Straw: charming, gorgeous, destined to win the nation's hearts. 
 
Funny Girl is the story of a smash-hit TV show and the people behind the scenes. But when life starts imitating art, they all face a choice. How long can they keep going before it's time to change the channel? 
 ______________ 
 
'Warm, funny, touching . . . winningly perceptive about human relationships and changing social trends' Daily Telegraph 
 
'Like all Hornby's best work, it is both hugely enjoyable and deceptively artful' Spectator 
 
'A beguiling, thoroughly enjoyable read' Sunday Times 
 
'Hugely enjoyable' Sunday Mirror 
 
'Resolutely, winningly light-hearted' Observer 
 
'Hornby's sunniest novel' Metro

So simple, so easy to read and yet so sensitive and profound at the same time. This is a world that feels real and one you don't want to leave

Like all Hornby's best work, it is both hugely enjoyable and deceptively artful

Everything Hornby writes is addictively readable and clever, but with Funny Girl he has surpassed himself

Make them laugh, and they're yours forever . . . 
 
Barbara Parker is Miss Blackpool of 1964, but she doesn't want to be a beauty queen. She wants to make people laugh. So she leaves her hometown behind, takes herself to London, and overnight she becomes the lead in a new BBC comedy, Sophie Straw: charming, gorgeous, destined to win the nation's hearts. 
 
Funny Girl is the story of a smash-hit TV show and the people behind the scenes. But when life starts imitating art, they all face a choice. How long can they keep going before it's time to change the channel?

Slam

THE HILARIOUS COMING-OF-AGE NOVEL FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ABOUT A BOY 
 
'Touching, very funny' Guardian 
__________________ 
 
'There was this time when everything seemed to have come together. And so obviously it was time to go and screw it all up.' 
 
Sam is sixteen and a skater. Just so there are no terrible misunderstandings: skating = skateboarding. There's no ice. Life is ticking along nicely for Sam; his Mum's got rid of her rubbish boyfriend, he's thinking about college and he's met someone. Alicia. 
 
Then a little accident happens. One with big consequences for someone just finding his way in life. Sam can't run (let alone skate) away from this one. He's a boy facing a man's problems and the question is - has he got what it takes to confront them? 
 
Slam is a novel about a boy who has to grow up in big, big hurry. It is The Catcher in the Rye for the 21st century. 
 
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'Very funny...very real' Daily Telegraph 
 
'Hornby gets his point across with the subtlety and skill of a born novelist who always deserves to be read' Independent 
 
'A moving read for anyone' Elle

'There was this time when everything seemed to have come together. And so obviously it was time to go and screw it all up.' 
 
Sam is sixteen and a skater. Just so there are no terrible misunderstandings: skating = skateboarding. There's no ice. Life is ticking along nicely for Sam: his mum's got rid of her rubbish boyfriend, he's thinking about college and he's met someone. Alicia. 
 
Then a little accident happens. One with big consequences for someone just finding his way in life. Sam can't run (let alone skate) away from this one. He's a boy facing a man's problems and the question is - has he got what it takes to confront them?

Juliet, Naked

What happens when a washed-up musician looks for another chance? And miles away, a restless woman looks for a change? 
 
NICK HORNBY'S HILARIOUS INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER IS NOW A MAJOR FILM 
 
'A comic delight' Evening Standard 
 _____________ 
 
In 1986, legendary musician Tucker Crowe disappeared from the public eye and for 20 years, his rabid fans have speculated his whereabouts. 
 
Annie lives in Gooleness, the north's answer to a question nobody asked, and has put fifteen years into a safe relationship with one such "Crowe-ologist", Duncan. And she wants her money back, please. 
 
Then Tucker releases new material. Duncan thinks it's genius, Annie does not, and when she dares to go public with her dislike, there are unexpected, life-changing consequences for all three . . . 
 
Juliet, Naked is a humblingly humorous novel about music, love, loneliness, and the struggle to live up to our own potential. If you like David Nicholls, David Sedaris and Jonathan Coe, you will love this book. 
_________________ 
 
'Ingenious, funny and moving' Daily Mail 
 
 
'Pitch-perfect' Observer 
 
'Sharply funny, touching' Daily Telegraph

Juliet, Naked is ingenious, funny and moving

A comic delight. In Juliet, Naked the author once again deftly but affectionately anatomizes the foibles of flawed men and women

Sharp, funny, touching . . . Nick Hornby's triumph is to find infinite amounts of warmth and humour in this seeming world of desolation

In 1986, legendary musician Tucker Crowe disappeared from the public eye and for 20 years, his rabid fans have speculated his whereabouts. 
 
Annie lives in Gooleness, the north's answer to a question nobody asked, and has put fifteen years into a safe relationship with one such "Crowe-ologist", Duncan. And she wants her money back, please. 
 
Then Tucker releases new material. Duncan thinks it's genius, Annie does not, and when she dares to go public with her dislike, there are unexpected, life-changing consequences for all three . . .

About a Boy

THE MILLION COPY NO. 1 BESTSELLER THAT BECAME AN ACCLAIMED FILM STARRING HUGH GRANT AND NICOLAS HOULT 
 
'A very entertaining and endearing read' The Times 
___________________ 
 
Thirty-six-year-old Londoner Will loves his life. Living carefree off the royalties of his dad's Christmas song, he's rich, unattached and has zero responsibilities - just the way he likes it. 
 
But when Will meets Marcus, an awkward twelve-year-old who listens to Joni Mitchell and accidentally kills ducks with loaves of bread, an unlikely friendship starts to bloom. 
 
Can this odd duo teach each another how to finally act their age? 
 
Hugely funny and equally heartfelt, Nick Hornby's classic proves you're never too old to grow up. 
___________________ 
 
'A stunner of a novel. Utterly read-in-one-day, forget-where-you-are-on-the-tube-gripping' Marie Claire 
 
'About the awful, hilarious, embarrassing places where children and adults meet, and Hornby has captured it with delightful precision' Irish Times 
 
'It takes a writer with real talent to make this work, and Hornby has it - in buckets' Literary Review 
 
NICK HORNBY'S HILARIOUS AND HEART-WARMING NEW NOVEL, CASH OUT, IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW

A very entertaining and endearing read

A stunner of a novel. Utterly read-in-one-day, forget-where-you-are-on-the-tube-gripping

About the awful, hilarious, embarrassing places where children and adults meet, and Hornby has captured it with delightful precision

It takes a writer with real talent to make this work, and Hornby has it - in buckets

Nick Hornby's second bestselling novel is about sex, manliness and fatherhood. Will is thirty-six, comfortable and child-free. And he's discovered a brilliant new way of meeting women - through single-parent groups. Marcus is twelve and a little bitnerdish: he's got the kind of mother who made him listen to Joni Mitchell rather than Nirvana. Perhaps they can help each other out a little bit, and both can start to act their age.

A Long Way Down

'Extremely funny . . . and wise' Sunday Times 
 
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE 
__________________________ 
 
'Can I explain why I wanted to jump off the top of a tower block?' 
 
For disgraced TV presenter Martin Sharp the answer's pretty simple: he has, in his own words, 'pissed his life away'. And on New Year's Eve he's going to end it all . . . but not, as it happens, alone. Because first single-mum Maureen, then eighteen-year-old Jess and lastly American rock-god JJ turn up and crash Martin's private party. They've stolen his idea - but brought their own reasons. 
 
Yet it's hard to jump when you've got an audience queuing impatiently behind you. A few heated words and some slices if cold pizza later and these four strangers are suddenly allies. But is their unlikely friendship a good enough reason to carry on living? 
 
Shortlisted for the 2005 Whitbread Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize, A Long Way Down is a darkly hilarious and moving novel by bestselling author Nick Hornby. 
__________________________ 
 
'Hornby's best yet' Literary Review 
 
'Impossible to put down' Ruth Rendell, Guardian 
 
'Some of the finest writing I've ever had the pleasure of reading' Johnny Depp

Impossible to put down . . . enthralling

'Can I explain why I wanted to jump off the top of a tower block?' 
 
For disgraced TV presenter Martin Sharp the answer's pretty simple: he has, in his own words, 'pissed his life away'. And on New Year's Eve, he's going to end it all ... But not, as it happens, alone. Because first single-mum Maureen, then eighteen-year-old Jess and lastly American rock-god JJ turn up and crash Martin's private party. They've stolen his idea - but brought their own reasons. 
 
Yet it's hard to jump when you've got an audience queuing impatiently behind you. A few heated words and some slices of cold pizza later and these four strangers are suddenly allies. But is their unlikely friendship a good enough reason to carry on living?

High Fidelity

THE MILLION-COPY INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER &amp; SOURCE OF THE 2020 HULU SERIES 
 
'One of my favourite novels' Zoë Kravitz in Vulture 
 ________________ 
 
Do you know your desert-island, all-time, top five most memorable break-ups? Rob does. 
 
But Laura isn't on it - even though she's just become his latest ex. 
 
Finding he can't get over Laura, record-store owner Rob decides to revisit his relationship top hits to figure out what went wrong. But soon, he's asking himself some big questions: about relationships, about life and about his own self-destructive tendencies. 
 
Astutely observed and wickedly funny, Nick Hornby's cult classic explores love, loss and the need for a good playlist. A must for readers of David Nicholls and music geeks everywhere! 
________________ 
 
'A triumphant first novel. True to life, very funny and moving' Financial Times 
 
'Extremely cleverly observed' Mail on Sunday 
 
'If this book was a record, we would be calling it an instant classic. Because that's what it is' Guardian 
 
'Leaves you believing not only in the redemptive power of music but above all the redemptive power of love. Funny and wise, sweet and true' Independent

Fast, fun, and remarkably deft: a sharp-edged portrait that manages at once to be vicious, generous, and utterly good-natured

Nick Hornby's first novel, an international bestseller and instantly recognized by critics and readers alike as a classic, helps to explain men to women, and men to men. Rob is good on music: he owns a small record shop and has strong views on what's decent and what isn't. But he's much less good on relationships. In fact, he's not at all sure that he wants to commit himself to anyone. So it's hardly surprising that his girlfriend decides that enough is enough.

How to be Good

THE MILLION-COPY NO.1 BESTSELLER 
 
'Enormously powerful' Guardian 
 
'Hilarious, sophisticated, compulsive' The Times 
___________________ 
 
'I am in a car park in Leeds when I tell my husband I don't want to be married to him any more. . . ' 
 
London GP Katie Carr always thought she was a good person. With her husband David making a living as 'The Angriest Man in Holloway', she figured she could put up with anything. Until, that is, David meets DJ Goodnews and becomes a good person too. A far-too-good person who starts committing crimes of charity like taking in the homeless and giving their kids' toys away. Suddenly Katie's feeling very bad about herself, and thinking that if charity begins at home, then maybe it's time to move. . . 
 
This laugh-out-loud novel, from the bestselling author of About a Boy and High Fidelity, will have you gripped from start to finish and will appeal to fans of David Nicholls and Jonathan Coe, as well as readers in need of a moral compass everywhere. 
___________________ 
 
'Pins you in your armchair and won't let go . . . How to be Good? How to be bloody marvellous, more like' Mail on Sunday 
 
'It does exactly what it says on the cover. Hornby's prose is artful and effortless, his spiky wit as razored as a number-two cut' Independent 
 
'The writing is so funny, and the set-pieces so brilliant . . . Hornby's best book since Fever Pitch' Lynn Truss, The Times

Vintage Nick Hornby. Very funny and very clever, and packed with wit and brilliance

According to her own complex moral calculations, Katie Carr has earned her affair. She's a doctor, after all, and doctors are decent people, and on top of that, her husband David is the self-styled Angriest Man in Holloway. But when David suddenly becomes good - properly, maddeningly, give-away-all-his-money good - Katie's sums no longer add up, and she is forced to ask herself some very hard questions. Nick Hornby's brilliant new novel, a No. 1 bestseller in the UK and Ireland, offers a painfully funny account of modern marriage and parenthood, and asks that most difficult of questions: what does it mean to be good?

Fever Pitch

*WINNER OF THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR* 
 
Fever Pitch is Nick Hornby's million-copy-selling, award-winnning football classic 
 
'A spanking 7-0 away win of a football book. . . inventive, honest, funny, heroic, charming' Independent 
 
For many people watching football is mere entertainment, to some it's more like a ritual; but to others, its highs and lows provide a narrative to life itself. 
 
But, for Nick Hornby, his devotion to the game has provided one of few constants in a life where the meaningful things - like growing up, leaving home and forming relationships, both parental and romantic - have rarely been as simple or as uncomplicated as his love for Arsenal. 
 
Brimming with wit and honesty, Fever Pitch, catches perfectly what it really means to be a football fan - and in doing so, what it means to be a man. 
 
'Hornby has put his finger on truths that have been unspoken for generations' Irish Times 
 
'Funny, wise and true' Roddy Doyle

As a young boy, growing up in the Home Counties and watching his parents' marriage fall apart, Nick Hornby had little sense of home. Then his dad took him to Highbury. Arsenal's football ground would become the source of many of the strongest feelings he'd ever have: joy, humiliation, heartbreak, frustration and hope. 
 
In this now-classic book, he vividly depicts his troubled relationship with his father, his time as a teacher, and his first loves (after football), all through the prism of the game, as he insightfully and brilliantly explores obsession, and the way it can shape a life.

Just Like You

'A charming - and sharp - love story about what it means to fall for someone who is your polar opposite' Sunday Telegraph 
_______________________________________________________ 
 
Lucy married just the sort of man you might expect: a university graduate who runs his own business. Unfortunately he turned out to have serious dependency issues. 
 
Joseph is shaking off the memory of his last date, a girl who ticked all the right boxes and also drove him up the wall. 
 
On an average Saturday morning in a butcher's shop in North London, Lucy and Joseph meet on opposite sides of the counter. She is a teacher and mother of two, with a past she is trying to forget; he is an aspiring DJ with a wide-open future that maybe needs to start becoming more focused. Lucy and Joseph are opposites in almost all ways. Can something life-changing grow from uncommon ground? 
 
Nick Hornby's brilliantly observed, tender and brutally funny new novel gets to the heart of what it means to fall headlong in love with the best possible person - someone who may not be just like you at all. 
 
Sunday Times Bestseller March 2023 _____________________________________________ 
 
'Truly funny . . . immensely readable, sharp-eyed and at times hilarious' Guardian 
 
'Comedy for our times' Sunday Times 
 
'Sparkles with tip-top dialogue and pin-sharp comic timing' Daily Mail 
 
*PRE-ORDER NICK HORNBY'S HILARIOUS AND HEARTWARMING NEW NOVEL CASH OUT NOW*

Unmistakably of-the-moment. Sharp, charming and upbeat

Well-told, thoughtful, tender and occasionally devastatingly funny love story

A charming - and sharp - love story about what it means to fall for someone who is your polar opposite

Frequently funny, consistently engaging ... it has great warmth in its heart

Hornby's hilarious and heart-wrenching new novel explores what it means to be somebody's perfect match, and why this notion of perfect compatibility is an absolute disaster when it comes to love

Woman and Home, Best Books to Look Forward to this Summer

The capable crackle of his dialogue - honed by a string of successful screenwriting projects - propels the domestic drama forward at an easy pace, particularly effective in the voices of the children

The novel explores division and racism and has its share of sharp observations that help illuminate what it means to fall headlong in love with someone who is nothing like you at all

Nick Hornby writes so well about his characters . . . his most enjoyable book for some years

Hornby has always been a first-rate storyteller and Just Like You - just perfectly put together - sparkles with tip-top dialogue and pin-sharp comic timing

Truly funny . . . the novel gallops straight into something that is immensely readable, sharp-eyed and at times hilarious

A brilliant read full of his trademark wit and ability to get to the heart of human nature

Set in 2016 against the strident backdrop of the Brexit vote, Nick Hornby's warmhearted comedy chronicles the love story between a middle-aged white woman and a young black man, suggesting that difference needn't always be divisive: sometimes it can bring us together

Hornby's prose is artful and effortless, his spiky wit as razored as a number-two cut

Hornby writes with a funny, fresh voice which skewers male and female foibles with hilarious accuracy

A fine writer, swift and pointed, with a lighter, more mischievous heart than he lets on, and more sympathy for the devil than he admits to

Dares to be witty, intelligent and emotionally generous at once

Lucy married just the sort of man you might expect: a university graduate who runs his own business. Unfortunately he turned out to have serious dependency issues. 
 
Joseph is shaking off the memory of his last date, a girl who ticked all the right boxes and also drove him up the wall. 
 
On an average Saturday morning in a butcher's shop in North London, Lucy and Joseph meet on opposite sides of the counter. She is a teacher and mother of two, with a past she is trying to forget; he is an aspiring DJ with a wide-open future that maybe needs to start becoming more focused. Lucy and Joseph are opposites in almost all ways. Can something life-changing grow from uncommon ground? 
 
Nick Hornby's brilliantly observed, tender and brutally funny new novel gets to the heart of what it means to fall headlong in love with the best possible person - someone who may not be just like you at all.

A Marriage in Ten Parts

State of the Union

*THE SIDE-SPLITTING NEW COMIC SHORT FROM ONE OF BRITAIN'S BEST-LOVED WRITERS, NOW A MAJOR BBC TV SERIES* 
______________________________ 
 
'It is as honest and multi-faceted an examination and appreciation of marriage as you could hope to find' The Guardian on Hornby's script adaptation 
 
Each week, Tom and Louise meet for a quick drink in the pub before they go to meet their marriage counsellor. Married for years and with two children, a recent incident has exposed the fault lines in their relationship in a way that Tom, for one, does not wish to think about. 
 
In the ten minutes in the pub they talk about the agenda for the session, what they talked about last week, what they will definitely not talk about with the counsellor, and how much better off they are than the couple whose counselling slot immediately precedes their own. 
 
Over the ten weeks that follow Tom and Louise begin to wonder: what if marriage is like a computer? When you take it apart to see how it works you might just be left with a million pieces you can't put back together . . .

Tom and Louise meet in the pub opposite their counsellor's office ten minutes before their session is about to start. Their marriage is in a state of crisis because Louise has been unfaithful, after a long period in which Tom wasn't interested in having sex with her at all. 
 
The plan in these ten minutes is to talk about the agenda for the session, what they talked about last week, what they never talk about, and what is wrong with the couple whose counselling slot immediately precedes their own. Frequently they talk about things that are really not important to their difficulties but which animate and provoke them anyway. 
 
In this way, we learn about the history and the future of a marriage. Anyone who has ever been in a relationship made more complicated by time, and familiarity, will recognise themselves in this brilliantly funny comedy written by one of our most beloved writers,one who captures relationships like few others.

The Complete Polysyllabic Spree

The Complete Polysyllabic Spree is Nick Hornby's wickedly funny journey through reading 
 
This is not a book of reviews. This is not a book that sneers at other books. This is a book about reading - about enjoying books wherever and however you find them. 
 
Nick Hornby, author of the bestsellers About a Boy and Fever Pitch - takes us on a hilarious and perceptive tour through the books he bought, the books he read and his thoughts on literature. He is first and foremost a reader and he approaches books like the rest of us: hoping to pick up one he can't put down. The Complete Polysyllabic Spree is a diary of sorts, charting his reading life over two years. It is a celebration of why we read - its pleasures, its disappointments and its surprises. And above all, it is for you - the ever hopeful reader. 
 
For fans of Bill Bryson and Stephen Fry, and for bookworms everywhere, this witty, passionate book will make you cherish the world of letters anew. 
 
'An engaged and engaging ramble around one reader's mind' The Times 
 
'Not only does it make you want to read more but, like all great books, it's also terrific company' Metro 
 
'For anyone whose idea of a good time is arguing with friends about their favourite books...amusing and contagiously enthusiastic' Big Issue

In his monthly accounts of what he's read - along with what he may one day read - Nick Hornby brilliantly explores everything from the classic to the graphic novel, as well as poems, plays, sports books and other kinds of non-fiction. If he occasionally implores a biographer for brevity, or abandons a literary work in favour of an Arsenal match, then all is not lost. His writing, full of all the joy and surprise and despair that books bring him, reveals why we still read, even when there's football on TV, a pram in the hall or a good band playing at our local pub.

Stuff I've Been Reading

Stuff I've Been Reading by Nick Hornby - the bestselling novelist's rich, witty and inspiring reading diary 
 
'Read what you enjoy, not what bores you,' Nick Hornby tells us. And in this new collection of his columns from the Believer magazine he shows us how it's done. 
 
From historical tomes to comic books, literary novels to children's stories, political thrillers to travel writing, Stuff I've Been Reading details Nick's thoughts and experiences on books by George Orwell, J.M. Barrie, Muriel Spark, Claire Tomalin, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Jennifer Egan, Ian McEwan, Cormac McCarthy and many, many more. This wonderfully entertaining journey in reading differs from all other reviews or critical appreciations - it takes into account the role that books actually play in our lives. 
 
This book, which is classic Hornby, confirms the novelist's status as one of the world's most exciting curators of culture. It will be loved by fans of About a Boy and High Fidelity, as well as readers of Will Self, Zadie Smith, Stewart Lee and Charlie Brooker.

'Read what you enjoy, not what bores you,' Nick Hornby tells us. And in this new collection of his columns from the Believer magazine he shows us how it's done. 
 
From historical tomes to comic books, literary novels to children's stories, political thrillers to travel writing, Stuff I've Been Reading details Nick's thoughts and experiences on books by George Orwell, J.M. Barrie, Muriel Spark, Claire Tomalin, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Jennifer Egan, Ian McEwan, Cormac McCarthy and many, many more. This wonderfully entertaining journey in reading differs from all other reviews or critical appreciations - it takes into account the role that books actually play in our lives.

31 Songs

FROM THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ABOUT A BOY 
 
31 Songs is best-selling author Nicky Hornby's ultimate desert island disks 
 
Through thirty-one songs that he either loves or has loved, Nick Hornby tells us what music means to his life. These personal and passionate pieces - refreshingly free of pretension - are a celebration of the joy that certain songs have given him. Together with additional writings on music from his column in the new Yorker - seen in the UK for the first time - 31 Songs is for Hornby what many of us have always wanted: a soundtrack to accompany life. 
 
Winner of The National Book Critics Circle award, this funny and touchingly personal book is a must for music fans everywhere. 
 
'Original, well written and wholly lacking in pretension...as good a book about pop music as I have read in many years and the most accomplished of Hornby's books so far' Spectator 
 
'Funny, provocative, immensely readable. It is not simply about music...it is about Hornby, and us, and about being alive. His enthusiasm is such that he makes me want to be a better listener - and I can offer no better compliment. A triumph' Tim Lott, Evening Standard 
 
'Refreshing, candid, very moving. Reminds you why you loved music before you knew enough to explain your love away' Uncut

'I decided that I wanted to write a little book of essays about songs I loved ... Songs are what I listen to, almost to the exclusion of everything else.' 
 
In his first non-fiction work since Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby writes about 31 songs that either have some great significance in his life - or are just songs that he loves. He discusses, among other things, guitar solos and losing your virginity to a Rod Stewart song and singers whose teeth whistle and the sort of music you hear in Body Shop. 
 
'The soundtrack to his life ... a revealing insight into one of Britain's most popular writers' Evening Standard

Twenty Years of Writing about Film, Music and Books

Books, Movies, Rhythm, Blues

Books, Movies, Rhythm, Blues by Nick Hornby - a collection of writing about film, music and books 
 
Books, Movies, Rhythm, Blues is the companion volume to Fan Mail, Nick Hornby's collection of writings on football. This second collection brings together the best of his other non-fiction pieces, on film and tv, writers and painters and music, and including one exceptional fragment of autobiography. With subject matter ranging from the Sundance Festival to Abbey Road Studios, from P.G. Wodehouse to The West Wing, these are pieces that 'were written for fun, or because I felt I had things to say and time to say them, or because the commissions were unusual and imaginative, or because ... I was being asked to go somewhere I had never been before.' 
 
This Penguin Special, available exclusively as an ebook, can be read in two hours or less. It will be loved by readers of High Fidelity and About a Boy, as well as fans of Hornby everywhere.

Books, Movies, Rhythm, Blues is the companion volume to Fan Mail, Nick Hornby's collection of writings on football. This second collection brings together the best of his other non-fiction pieces, on film and tv, writers and painters and music, and including one exceptional fragment of autobiography. With subject matter ranging from the Sundance Festival to Abbey Road Studios, from P.G. Wodehouse to The West Wing, these are pieces that 'were written for fun, or because I felt I had things to say and time to say them, or because the commissions were unusual and imaginative, or because ... I was being asked to go somewhere I had never been before.'

Twenty Years of Writing about Football

Fan Mail

Fan Mail: Twenty Years of Writing about Football by Nick Hornby, the bestselling author of Fever Pitch 
 
After the phenomenal success of Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby tried to avoid writing about football, for fear that he'd be writing about it forever. But occasionally over the years he's found it impossible to turn down a particularly enticing assignment or, in the case of the 2012-13 Premier League, just unable to resist writing about that most spectacular of seasons. 
 
Fortunately for those who love great writing about football, all these fugitive pieces are collected in Fan Mail. You can follow the fortunes, as Hornby did, of a hopelessly out-of-their-depth Cambridge United in the old Second Division, discover why Perry Groves was an unlikely hero among Arsenal fans, enjoy Hornby trying to explain the World Cup to Americans, and share with him the pain of watching our national team. 
 
This Penguin Special, available exclusively as an ebook, can be read in two hours or less. It will be loved by readers of The Secret Footballer and Inverting the Pyramid, as well as fans of Hornby everywhere. 
 
'Fever Pitch is the best football book ever written' Nick Lezard, GQ

After the phenomenal success of Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby tried to avoid writing about football, for fear that he'd be writing about it forever. But occasionally over the years he's found it impossible to turn down a particularly enticing assignment or, in the case of the 2012-13 Premier League, just unable to resist writing about that most spectacular of seasons. 
 
Fortunately for those who love great writing about football, all these fugitive pieces are collected in Fan Mail. You can follow the fortunes, as Hornby did, of a hopelessly out-of-their-depth Cambridge United in the old Second Division, discover why Perry Groves was an unlikely hero among Arsenal fans, enjoy Hornby trying to explain the World Cup to Americans, and share with him the pain of watching our national team.

Notes on the 2011/2012 Football Season

Pray

Pray is bestselling author Nick Hornby's extraordinary account of an astonishing season 
 
'That is why there is NOTHING better than sport' Kevin Pietersen 
 
The 2011-12 Premier League season finished on an afternoon so extraordinary that it prompted Kevin Pietersen's tweet. Yet this was just the climax of an incredible season. By May fans of most clubs had been enthralled, appalled, depressed, elated, shocked and enraged. Along the way football had somehow managed to encompass politics, high finance, the law and matters of life and death. 
 
Beginning with the weekend of 28 August when the Man Utd demolition of Arsenal 8-2 and the Man City demolition of Spurs 5-1 showed what was to come, he concentrates on a number of games whose significance went beyond the immediate result: the October games with alleged rascist incidents, the fairy-tale return of Thierry Henry, the collapse of Fabrice Muamba, the Carling Cup Final where Liverpool's victory only served to point up the club's problems, the unusual (but increasingly more common) 4-4 draw between Man Utd and Everton... 
 
It was a season of tumultuous incident and enormous entertainment, a season more glorious than most. Read all about it, and relive it, here, from the award-winning author of the football classic Fever Pitch.

'That is why there is NOTHING better than sport' Kevin Pietersen 
 
The 2011-12 Premier League season finished on an afternoon so extraordinary that it prompted Kevin Pietersen's tweet. Yet this was just the climax of an incredible season. By May fans of most clubs had been enthralled, appalled, depressed, elated, shocked and enraged. Along the way football had somehow managed to encompass politics, high finance, the law and matters of life and death. 
 
In Pray Nick Hornby, author of the classic Fever Pitch, offers an entertaining and typically insightful account of this most extraordinary of seasons. Beginning with the weekend of 28 August when the Man Utd demolition of Arsenal 8-2 and the Man City demolition of Spurs 5-1 showed what was to come, he concentrates on a number of games whose significance went beyond the immediate result: the October games with alleged rascist incidents, the fairy-tale return of Thierry Henry, the collapse of Fabrice Muamba, the Carling Cup Final where Liverpool's victory only served to point up the club's problems, the unusual (but increasingly more common) 4-4 draw between Man Utd and Everton... 
 
It was a season of tumultuous incident and enormous entertainment, a season more glorious than most. Read all about it, and relive it, here.

Speaking with the Angel

Speaking with the Angel is a collection of short stories, edited by Nick Hornby 
 
Hear the Prime Minister explain to the House why he did a runner from Greenford Park service station and hitched a lift with a fifteen-year-old girl, as imagined by Robert Harris. Listen to someone who has a small hostile creature in his room, as told by Roddy Doyle. 
 
Twelve voices, twelve completely new stories, narrated by twelve different characters. And all written by twelve of the most exciting and popular writers around: Robert Harris, Melissa Bank, Giles Smith, Patrick Marber, Colin Frith, Zadie Smith, Dave Eggers, Helen Fielding, Roddy Doyle, Irvine Welsh, John O'Farrell and Nick Hornby himself. 
 
This sparkling collection has been put together by bestselling novelist Nick Hornby, who also contributes an Introduction about TreeHouse, an organisation that offers a unique and pioneering approach to the education of children with autism. £1 will go to TreeHouse with every copy sold of Speaking with the Angel.

A dozen of the most successful and popular writers today including: Helen Fielding, Robert Harris, Patrick Marber, Zadie Smith, John O'Farrell, Roddy Doyle, Melissa Bank and Irvine Welsh have written 6000-word fictional monologues along the lines of Alan Bennet's Talking Heads. And Colin Firth makes his début as a fiction writer. The result is a book of completely original stories that have heart, soul and wit. All the writers have given their work free, and Penguin is giving £1 per copy sold to the TreeHouse Trust, a charity which is setting up a unique school for autistic children

The Screenplay

An Education

An Education is Nick Hornby's Oscar-nominated screenplay of Lynn Barber's life 
 
Based on Lynn Barber's extraordinary memoir, An Education is set in the early 1960s and tells the story of a sixteen-year-old English girl's encounter and relationship with a charming older man who is much more, and much less, than he says he is. 
 
Taking this strange story as his starting point, Nick Hornby has scripted an Oscar-nominated film, starring Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgraad, which is funny and shocking in equal measure - and which brilliantly captures a Britain emerging from the sleepy 50s and on the brink of a glittering new decade. 
 
Fans of British writing and cinema alike, from Brighton Rock to Atonement will enjoy this mesmerizing book.

The script for major new film An Education, the story of the bizarre relationship between 1960s teenager Jenny (played by Carey Mulligan) and older man David (Peter Sarsgaard), after she accepts a lift on her way home from music practice one day. Based on Observer journalist Lynn Barber's real-life experience as recounted in her book An Education, the film won the Audience Award for best film at the Sundance Film Festival and tremendous acclaim at the Berlin Film Festival too. It will be released in the UK in October 2009 and promises to be the season's Slumdog Millionaire. 
 
Hornby's charming script is included in An Education: The Screenplay, along with stills from the film and a long introduction in which he wittily describes the process of converting someone's very personal memoir into a hit film.

Nick Hornby

Hornby is a writer who dares to be witty, intelligent and emotionally generous all at once

Nick Hornby returns to the subject that made us all fall in love with his writing and CASH OUT's riveting premise will appeal to everyone, whether they love football or not. Final score: Entertainment - 7. Boredom – 0

''We're having the time of our lives' is the refrain running through CASH OUT, and I had the time of mine reading it.  A love letter to football, and a love story - it is very, very funny and it is Nick Hornby at his best.

So clever and funny, and such a brilliant conceit for building a plot around what it means to be a fan... I loved it

A book not just for relatives of football fans who wonder why the stupid game is so important but for those who understand already. Read it and you'll find yourself invested either way. Nick Hornby's charismatic, funny, wise, and deeply entertaining novel has the effervescence of prime Kanté and the pace of Vardy on the counter

CASH OUT will delight those indifferent to football, those obsessed, and everyone in between. A story with tension, dilemma, money, sex, an underdog, and a disloyal sister. I have never been less bored reading a book in my life. I LOVED it

Sophie has never really thought about money, and she certainly hasn’t thought about football, hasn’t so much as uttered a word about it – save for the few times she sees her uncle Keith at family gatherings, asking in mock politeness how his favourite team – Leicester City FC – might be doing that season. 
 
But when Keith makes a bet for Leicester’s win in Sophie’s name, something inexplicable happens. She begins to think about money – lots of money – and she begins to think about football. The team are on a winning streak, and the bookies are offering her good money to cash out. Maybe Sophie can finally pull herself and her slacker boyfriend out of the financial holes he keeps digging. Maybe she no longer needs to settle for the slacker boyfriend at all. A new man is on the horizon; a windfall is within reach. 
 
Suddenly life as she knows it, and the people she lives it with, are hanging by a thread. Sophie must decide whether to play it safe and cash out, or to risk it all…

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