Who wrote the novels About A Boy, How To Be Good and High Fidelity?
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About_a_Boy_(film).txt How_to_Be_Good.txt High_Fidelity_(film).txt Nick_Hornby.txt
About a Boy (film) How to Be Good High Fidelity (film) Nick Hornby
About a Boy is a 2002 British-American-French comedy-drama film produced by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro, Brad Epstein, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, co-written and directed by brothers Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz with music by Badly Drawn Boy and written by Peter Hedges. It is an adaptation of the 1998 novel of the same name by Nick Hornby. The film stars are Hugh Grant, Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, and Rachel Weisz. The film at times uses double voice-over narration, when the audience hears both Will's and Marcus's thoughts.

The film was theatrically released on 26 April 2002 by Universal Pictures. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Actors Hugh Grant and Toni Collette were nominated for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award respectively for their performances. The film received positive reviews from critics and it earned $130,549,455 on a $30 million budget.

Plot

Will Freeman  (Hugh Grant) lives a serene and luxurious lifestyle devoid of responsibility in London thanks to substantial royalties left to him from a successful Christmas song composed by his father. Will begins attending a support group, called SPAT (Single Parents Alone Together), for single parents as a way to meet women and as part of his ploy, invents a two-year-old son named Ned. His plan succeeds and he meets Suzie (Victoria Smurfit).  Will brings Suzie on a picnic where he meets Marcus (Nicholas Hoult), the 12-year-old son of Suzie's friend, Fiona (Toni Collette). Will gains Marcus' interest and trust after he lies to a park ranger to cover up for Marcus killing a duck by throwing his mother's concrete loaf at it. Afterward, when Will and Suzie take Marcus home, they find Fiona in the living room, overdosed on pills in a suicide attempt.

Marcus attempts to fix Will up with his mother in order to cheer her up, but the plan fails after a single date.  Instead, Marcus becomes close to Will after blackmailing him with the knowledge that "Ned" doesn't exist, and begins to treat him as a surrogate big brother. Marcus' influence leads Will to mature and he seeks out a relationship with Rachel (Rachel Weisz), a self-assured career woman, bonding over their experiences raising teenaged sons, though Will neglects to explain his relationship to Marcus. Marcus, in turn, becomes infatuated with Ellie (Natalia Tena) but gives up his romantic interest in favour of a close platonic friendship. Will, realizing that he desires true intimacy with Rachel, decides to be honest with her about his relationship with Marcus, but this backfires and their relationship ends.

One day, Marcus comes home from school to find his mother crying in the living room. Marcus attempts to unburden himself to Will, but Will is withdrawn following his break-up.  Marcus decides to sing at a school talent show in order to make his mother happy.  Will attempts to return to his previous lifestyle, but finds it unfulfilling and decides to help Marcus.  He crashes a meeting of the single parents support group to find Fiona and beg her not to commit suicide. She assures him that she has no plans to do so in the immediate future and reveals that Marcus has decided to sing at the school show that day.

Will realizes this will be a huge embarrassment for Marcus and rushes to the school to stop him, but Marcus is steadfast in his decision to perform, believing it will be the only thing that will make his mother happy. Marcus steps on stage and sings his mother's favourite song - "Killing Me Softly with His Song", the student body starts to taunt him. Suddenly, Will appears onstage with a guitar to accompany Marcus for the rest of the song, turning himself into the butt of the joke and rescuing Marcus from humiliation and even more social suicide.

The following Christmas, Will has gotten back together with Rachel and hosts a celebration at his place with his new extended family. The idea of Will marrying Rachel is brought up and Marcus seems unenthusiastic.  But Marcus reveals in voiceover that he's not against Will and Rachel marrying, merely that he believes that couples don't work on their own and that everyone needs an extended support system like he now has, concluding "No man is an island." 

Cast

* Hugh Grant as Will Freeman
* Nicholas Hoult as Marcus Brewer
* Toni Collette as Fiona Brewer
* Rachel Weisz as Rachel
* Natalia Tena as Ellie
* Sharon Small as Christine
* Nicholas Hutchinson as John
* Victoria Smurfit as Suzie
* Isabel Brook as Angie
* Ben Ridgeway as Lee, the bully
* Jenny Galloway as Frances / SPAT
* Augustus Prew as Ali
* Tim Rice (uncredited archive footage) as Himself

Release

The film was released theatrically on 26 April 2002 by Universal Pictures and was released on DVD, Blu-ray and VHS on January 2, 2003 by Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

Reception

The film received critical acclaim, with a 94% 'Certified Fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes.  The film, with a budget of US$30 million, grossed a worldwide total of US$130,549,455. In December 2002, the film was chosen by the American Film Institute as one of the ten best movies of the year. The film received a B+ CinemaScore from American audiences.  Almost universally praised, with an Academy Award-nominated screenplay, About a Boy was determined by the Washington Post to be "that rare romantic comedy that dares to choose messiness over closure, prickly independence over fetishised coupledom, and honesty over typical Hollywood endings." Rolling Stone wrote, "The acid comedy of Grant's performance carries the film [and he] gives this pleasing heartbreaker the touch of gravity it needs".

Roger Ebert observed that "the Cary Grant department is understaffed, and Hugh Grant shows here that he is more than a star, he is a resource." Released a day after the blockbuster Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, About a Boy was a more modest box office grosser than other successful Grant films, making all of $129 million globally. The film earned Grant his third Golden-Globe nomination, while the London Film Critics Circle named Grant its Best British Actor and GQ honoured him as one of the magazine's men of the year 2006.  "His performance can only be described as revelatory," wrote critic Ann Hornaday, adding that "Grant lends the shoals layer upon layer of desire, terror, ambivalence and self-awareness."

The New York Observer concluded: "[The film] gets most of its laughs from the evolved expertise of Hugh Grant in playing characters that audiences enjoy seeing taken down a peg or two as a punishment for philandering and womanising and simply being too handsome for words-and with an English accent besides. In the end, the film comes over as a messy delight, thanks to the skill, generosity and good-sport, punching-bag panache of Mr. Grant's performance." About a Boy also marked a notable change in Grant's boyish look. Now 41, he had lost weight and also abandoned his trademark floppy hair. Entertainment Weeklys Owen Gleiberman took note of Grant's maturation in his review, saying he looked noticeably older and that it "looked good on him." He added that Grant's "pillowy cheeks are flatter and a bit drawn, and the eyes that used to peer with 'love me' cuteness now betray a shark's casual cunning. Everything about him is leaner and spikier (including his hair, which has been shorn and moussed into a Eurochic bed-head mess), but it's not just his surface that's more virile; the nervousness is gone, too. Hugh Grant has grown up, holding on to his lightness and witty cynicism but losing the stuttering sherry-club mannerisms that were once his signature. In doing so, he has blossomed into the rare actor who can play a silver-tongued sleaze with a hidden inner decency."

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released on 23 April 2002, composed by singer/songwriter Badly Drawn Boy.

;Track listing
# "Exit Stage Right"
# "A Peak You Reach"
# "Something to Talk About"
# "Dead Duck"
# "Above You, Below Me"
# "I love NYE"
# "Silent Sigh"
# "Wet, Wet, Wet"
# "River, Sea, Ocean"
# "S.P.A.T."
# "Rachel's Flat"
# "Walking Out of Stride"
# "File Me Away"
# "A Minor Incident"
# "Delta (Little Boy Blues)"
# "Donna and Blitzen" How to Be Good is a 2001 novel by the English writer Nick Hornby.  It centers on characters Katie Carr, a doctor, and her husband, David Grant.  The story begins when David stops being "The Angriest Man In Holloway" and begins to be "good" with the help of his spiritual healer, DJ GoodNews (who also shows up briefly in Hornby's A Long Way Down). The pair go about this by nominally convincing people to give their spare bedrooms to the homeless, but as their next scheme comes around, "reversal" (being good to people one has not been good to in the past), this proves to be fruitless and thus David gives up his strivings and his plans for a book on how to be good, appropriately named "How to be Good."

The protagonist, Katie, briefly encounters a minor character named Dick whose description and attitude towards music are reminiscent of the character of the same name from Hornby's first novel, High Fidelity. High Fidelity is a 2000 American comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Frears. It stars John Cusack, Iben Hjejle, Jack Black, Todd Louiso, Tim Robbins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Lisa Bonet. The film is based on the 1995 British novel of the same name by Nick Hornby, with the setting moved from London to Chicago and the name of the lead character changed. After seeing the film, Hornby expressed his happiness with Cusack's performance, saying that "at times, it appears to be a film in which John Cusack reads my book". 

Plot

Rob Gordon (John Cusack) is a self-confessed music loving everyman with a poor understanding of women. After getting dumped by his latest girlfriend, Laura (Iben Hjejle), he decides to look up some of his old partners in an attempt to figure out where he keeps going wrong in his relationships.

He spends his days at his record store, Championship Vinyl, where he holds court over the customers that drift through. Helping Rob in his task of musical elitism are Dick (Todd Louiso) and Barry (Jack Black), the "musical moron twins," as he refers to them. Armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of all things musical, they compile "top five" lists for every conceivable occasion, openly mock the tastes of their customers, and, every so often, sell a few records.

Rob and the staff have a strong dislike for two shoplifting skateboarder teenagers, Vince (Chris Rehmann) and Justin (Ben Carr). One day, he listens to a recording that they made and offers them a record deal, starting his own label called Top 5 Records. During his off hours, he pines for Laura and does his best to win her back.

Rob soon hears that Laura's father, who liked Rob, has died, and attends his funeral with Laura. Shortly after the reception, Rob realizes he never committed to Laura and always had one foot out the door. This made him realize he neglected his own future in the process. Afterward, he and Laura move back in together again. Rob meets a music columnist whom he soon develops a crush on, but while making a mixtape for her, wonders if he'll always just be jumping rock to rock. Laura meets with Rob in a bar where he explains how other girls are just fantasies, and while Laura is a reality, he never gets tired of her. He then proposes marriage to her, and she thanks him for asking. Later, she organizes an evening where he has the opportunity to revisit a love of his youth: dee-jaying. It is also a celebration of the recently released single by the two delinquents, where Barry's band plays "Let's Get It On". Surprised that Barry's band is not a disaster, Rob holds Laura, and they both sway to the music. Rob makes a mixtape for Laura, feeling like he's finally learned how to make her happy.

Cast

* John Cusack as Rob Gordon
* Iben Hjejle as Laura
* Jack Black as Barry Judd
* Todd Louiso as Dick
* Catherine Zeta-Jones as Charlie Nicholson
* Lisa Bonet as Marie DeSalle
* Sara Gilbert as Annaugh Moss
* Lili Taylor as Sarah Kendrew
* Joan Cusack as Liz
* Tim Robbins as Ian "Ray" Raymond
* Joelle Carter as Penny Hardwick
* Chris Rehmann as Vince
* Ben Carr as Justin
* Natasha Gregson Wagner as Caroline Fortis
* Drake Bell as young Rob Gordon
* Bruce Springsteen as himself 
* Ian Williams as a guy in record store 
* Al Johnson as a record store geek

Production

Nick Hornby's book was optioned by Disney's Touchstone Pictures in 1995 where it went into development for three years.  Disney executive Joe Roth had a conversation with recording executive Kathy Nelson who recommended John Cusack and his writing and producing partners D. V. DeVincentis and Steve Pink adapt the book. She had worked previously with them on Grosse Pointe Blank and felt that they had the right sensibilities for the material.  According to Cusack, DeVincentis is the closest to the record-obsessive characters in the film, owning 1,000 vinyl records and thousands of CDs and tapes.  They wrote a treatment that was immediately greenlit by Roth.

Screenplay

The writers decided to change the book's setting from London to Chicago because they were more familiar with the city and it also had a "great alternative music scene", according to Pink.  Cusack said, "When I read the book I knew where everything was in Chicago. I knew where the American Rob went to school and dropped out, where he used to spin records. I knew two or three different record shops when I was growing up that had a Rob, a Dick and a Barry in them".  Charlotte Tudor, of the film's distributor, Buena Vista, said: "Chicago has the same feel as north London, there is a vibrant music scene, a lot of the action is set in smoky bars and, of course, there is the climate. But everyone, including Nick, felt that geography was not the central issue. It has a universal appeal".  Scenes were filmed in the neighborhood of Wicker Park, Chicago. 

Cusack found that the greatest challenge adapting the novel was pulling off Rob Gordon's frequent breaking of the fourth wall and talking directly to the audience. The screenwriters did this to convey Rob's inner confessional thoughts and were influenced by a similar technique in the Michael Caine film, Alfie. Cusack rejected this approach because he thought that "there'd just be too much of me". Once director Stephen Frears signed on to direct, he suggested using this technique and everyone agreed to use it.

Cusack and the writers floated the idea that Rob could have a conversation with Bruce Springsteen in his head, inspired by a reference in Hornby's book where the narrator wishes he could handle his past girlfriends as well as Springsteen does in his song, "Bobby Jean" on Born in the U.S.A.  They never believed they would actually get the musician to appear in the film, but thought putting him in the script would get the studio excited about it. Cusack knew Springsteen socially and called the musician up and pitched the idea. Springsteen asked for a copy of the script and afterwards agreed to do it.

Casting

Frears was at the Berlin International Film Festival and saw Mifune's Last Song, starring Iben Hjejle, and realized that he had found the actress for the role. Frears read Hornby's book and enjoyed it but did not connect with the material because it was not about his generation.  He accepted the job because he wanted to work with Cusack again (they had worked together previously on The Grifters) and liked the idea of changing the setting from London to Chicago. The director was also responsible for insisting on keeping Jack Black on as Barry. Frears has said that many people from the studio would come to watch his  rushes. 

Soundtrack

One of the challenges that the screenwriters faced was figuring out which songs would go where in the film because Rob, Dick, and Barry "are such musical snobs," according to Cusack. He and his screenwriting partners listened to 2,000 songs and picked 70 song cues.

;Track listing
# "You're Gonna Miss Me" – 13th Floor Elevators
# "Ev'rybody's Gonna Be Happy" – The Kinks
# "I'm Wrong About Everything" – John Wesley Harding
# "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" – The Velvet Underground
# "Always See Your Face" – Love
# "Most of the Time" – Bob Dylan
# "Fallen for You" – Sheila Nicholls
# "Dry the Rain" – The Beta Band
# "Shipbuilding" – Elvis Costello & The Attractions
# "Cold Blooded Old Times" – Smog
# "Let's Get It On" – Barry Jive & The Uptown Five (Jack Black)
# "Lo Boob Oscillator" – Stereolab
# "The Inside Game" – Royal Trux
# "Who Loves the Sun" – The Velvet Underground
# "I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)" – Stevie Wonder

;More music in the film

Reception

High Fidelity premiered at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. The post-party was held at the Sunset Room where Tenacious D performed.  The film was given a wide release on March 31, 2000, grossing $6.4 million on its opening weekend. It grossed $47.1 million of which $27.3 million was from the US. 

Critical response

High Fidelity received positive reviews from critics and has a "certified fresh" score of 91% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 163 reviews with an average rating of 7.7 out of 10. The critical consensus states: "The deft hand of director Stephen Frears and strong performances by the ensemble cast combine to tell an entertaining story with a rock-solid soundtrack."  The film also has a score of 79 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 35 critics indicating "generally favorable reviews". 

Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and wrote, "Watching High Fidelity, I had the feeling I could walk out of the theater and meet the same people on the street — and want to, which is an even higher compliment."  In his review for the Washington Post, Desson Howe praised Jack Black as "a bundle of verbally ferocious energy. Frankly, whenever he's in the scene, he shoplifts this movie from Cusack."  In his review for The New York Times, Stephen Holden praised Cusack's performance, writing that he was "a master at projecting easygoing camaraderie, he navigates the transitions with such an astonishing naturalness and fluency that you're almost unaware of them."  USA Today did not give the film a positive review: "Let's be kind and just say High Fidelity doesn't quite belong beside Grosse Pointe Blank and The Sure Thing in Cusack's greatest hits collection. It's not that he isn't good. More like miscast."  In his review for Entertainment Weekly, Owen Gleiberman gave the film a "B-" rating and wrote, "In High Fidelity, Rob's music fixation is a signpost of his arrested adolescence; he needs to get past records to find true love. If the movie had had a richer romantic spirit, he might have embraced both in one swooning gesture." 

Peter Travers, in his review for Rolling Stone, wrote, "It hits all the laugh bases, from grins to guffaws. Cusack and his Chicago friends — D.V. DeVincentis and Steve Pink — have rewritten Scott Rosenberg's script to catch Hornby's spirit without losing the sick comic twists they gave 1997's Grosse Pointe Blank." In his review for The Observer, Philip French wrote, "High Fidelity is an extraordinarily funny film, full of verbal and visual wit. And it is assembled with immense skill."  Stephanie Zacharek, in her review for Salon.com, praised Iben Hjejle's performance: "Hjejle's Laura is supremely likable: She's so matter-of-fact and grounded that it's perfectly clear why she'd become exasperated with a guy like Rob, who perpetually refuses to grow up, but you can also see how her patience and calm are exactly the things he needs." 

Legacy

Empire magazine readers voted High Fidelity the 446th greatest film in their "500 Greatest Movies of All Time" poll.  It is also ranked #14 on Rotten Tomatoes' 25 Best Romantic Comedies.  In its June 2010 issue, Chicago magazine rated it #1 in a list of the top 40 movies ever filmed in Chicago.  Russian-American alternative singer-songwriter Regina Spektor was watching this movie when she wrote her song "Fidelity", which is her most popular song to date and marked her first entry into the Billboard 100. Also in 2006 a musical based upon the movie premiered on Broadway and ran for 13 performances.

American Film Institute recognition

* 2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:	
** "Let's Get It On" – Nominated Nicholas Peter John "Nick" Hornby  (born 17 April 1957) is an English novelist, essayist, lyricist, and screenwriter. He is best known for his novels High Fidelity and About a Boy. Hornby's work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists. His books have sold more than 5 million copies worldwide as of 2009. 

Early life and education

Hornby was born in Redhill, Surrey, the son of Sir Derek Peter Hornby, the chairman of London and Continental Railways, and Margaret Audrey Hornby (née Withers).  He was brought up in Maidenhead, and educated at Maidenhead Grammar School and Jesus College, Cambridge, where he read English.  His parents divorced when he was eleven.

Career

Hornby published his first book in 1992, a collection of essays about American Writers such as Tobias Wolff and Ann Beattie, titled Contemporary American Fiction.  Hornby's second book, Fever Pitch, also published in 1992, is an autobiographical story detailing his fanatical support for Arsenal Football Club.  As a result, Hornby received the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award.  In 1997, the memoir was adapted for film in the UK, and in 2005 an American remake was released, following Jimmy Fallon's character's obsession with the Boston Red Sox, a baseball team.  With the book's success, Hornby began to publish articles in the Sunday Times, Time Out and the Times Literary Supplement, in addition to his music reviews for the New Yorker.

High Fidelity — his third book and first novel — was published in 1995. The novel, about a neurotic record collector and his failed relationships, was adapted into a 2000 film starring John Cusack, and a Broadway musical in 2006.

His second novel, About a Boy, published in 1998, is about two "boys" — Marcus, an awkward yet endearing adolescent from a single-parent family, and the free-floating, mid-30s Will Freeman, who overcomes his own immaturity and self-centeredness through his growing relationship with Marcus.  Hugh Grant and Nicholas Hoult starred in the 2002 film version.  In 1999, Hornby received the E. M. Forster Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Hornby's next novel, How to Be Good, was published in 2001. The female protagonist in the novel explores contemporary morals, marriage and parenthood. It won the W.H. Smith Award for Fiction in 2002.

Part of the money he earned with his next book, Speaking with the Angel in 2002, was donated to TreeHouse, a charity for children with autism, the disorder that affects Hornby's own son. He was editor of the book, which contained twelve short stories written by his friends. He also contributed to the collection with the story "NippleJesus". 

In 2003, Hornby wrote a collection of essays on selected popular songs and the emotional resonance they carry, called 31 Songs (known in the US as Songbook). Also in 2003, Hornby was awarded the London Award 2003, an award that was selected by fellow writers. 

Hornby has also written essays on various aspects of popular culture, and in particular, he has become known for his writing on pop music and mix tape enthusiasts. Since 2003, he has written a book review column, "Stuff I've Been Reading", for the monthly magazine The Believer; all of these articles are collected between The Polysyllabic Spree (2004), Housekeeping vs. The Dirt (2006), Shakespeare Wrote for Money (2008), and More Baths Less Talking (2012).

Hornby's novel A Long Way Down was published in 2005, with a film version of this book released in 2014.  It was on the shortlist for the Whitbread Novel Award. Hornby has also edited two sports-related anthologies: My Favourite Year and The Picador Book of Sports Writing.

Hornby's book Slam was published on 16 October 2007; it is his first novel for young adults and was recognized as a 2008 ALA Best Books for Young Adults. The protagonist of Slam is a 16-year-old skateboarder named Sam whose life changes drastically when his girlfriend gets pregnant.

Hornby's following novel, titled Juliet, Naked, was published in September 2009. Addressing similar themes as his earlier novel High Fidelity, the book is about a reclusive 1980s rock star who is forced out of isolation when the re-release of his most famous album brings him into contact with some of his most passionate fans. This synopsis was revealed to The Guardian newspaper as part of "What not to miss in 2009: books". 

In 2010, Hornby co-founded the Ministry of Stories, a non-profit organisation in East London dedicated to helping children and young adults develop writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.

Hornby discussed his bouts of depression in 2012 on the BBC Radio 4 broadcast of "Fever Pitched: Twenty Years On". 

Hornby's most recent novel, Funny Girl, about a Sixties beauty queen determined to make her mark upon television comedy, was released in late 2014.

Screenwriting

Hornby has also developed a career as a screenwriter, and has said that he enjoys the challenge of working in film as opposed to writing novels. In his BAFTA & BFI Screenwriters' Lecture he said,  “once you get to a certain point in your novelistic career, unless you screw up very badly the book is going to come out. With a screenplay there are all these hurdles that seem to have some kind of objectivity to them. The screenplay has to work and I love that.”

In 2009, Hornby adapted an autobiographical memoir by the journalist Lynn Barber for the screen as An Education,  a feature film starring Peter Sarsgaard and Carey Mulligan.  He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and for two BAFTAs for writing the screenplay.

In 2014, Hornby adapted another autobiographical memoir, Cheryl Strayed's Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. Wild, which starred Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern, was nominated for Best Actress for Witherspoon and Best Supporting Actress for Dern. Speaking on the challenge of adapting such a packed book, Hornby said it was really a case of boiling everything down and making the realisation that he could have made a two-hour film without mentioning walking at all.

In 2015, he wrote the script for the film Brooklyn, an adaptation of Colm Tóibín's novel of the same name. Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph said it was "his strongest work ever as a screenwriter".  According to Metacritic, the film is on eighty "top 10" lists for 2015.  He was nominated for his second Oscar for writing the screenplay.

Adaptations

Film

Several of Hornby's books have made the jump from page to screen. Hornby wrote the screenplay for the first, a 1997 British adaptation of Fever Pitch, starring Colin Firth. It was followed by High Fidelity in 2000, starring John Cusack; this adaptation was notable in that the action was shifted from London to Chicago. After this success, About a Boy was quickly picked up, and released in 2002, starring Hugh Grant. An Americanized Fever Pitch, in which Jimmy Fallon plays a hopelessly addicted Boston Red Sox fan who tries to reconcile his love of the game with that of his girlfriend (Drew Barrymore), was released in 2005. Johnny Depp purchased film rights to the book A Long Way Down before it was published.

Stage

High Fidelity was also the basis for a 2006 eponymous musical that shifted the action to Brooklyn; its book is by David Lindsay-Abaire, with lyrics by Amanda Green and music created by Tom Kitt. The production ran for a month in Boston, then moved to Broadway, closing after 18 previews and 14 regular performances.

Television

About a Boy was adapted for television and aired on NBC from February 22, 2014 to February 17, 2015. The show was developed by Jason Katims and it is the second adaptation based on the 1998 novel. The series stars David Walton, Minnie Driver and Benjamin Stockham,

Music

The importance of music in Hornby's novels, and in his life, is evidenced by his long-standing and fruitful collaborations with the rock band Marah, fronted by Dave and Serge Bielanko. Hornby has even toured in the United States and Europe with the band, joining them on stage to read his essays about particular moments and performers in his own musical history that have had a particular meaning for him.

Hornby's music criticism (most notably for The New Yorker and in his own Songbook) has been widely criticised by writers such as Kevin Dettmar (in his book Is Rock Dead), Curtis White (in an essay at www.centreforbookculture.org, titled "Kid Adorno"),  Barry Faulk and Simon Reynolds for his embrace of rock traditionalism and conservative take on post-rock and other experimental musics (exemplified in Hornby's negative review of the Radiohead album Kid A). 

Hornby has also had extensive collaboration with American singer/songwriter Ben Folds. Their album Lonely Avenue was released in September 2010. Folds wrote the music, with Hornby contributing lyrics. Prior to the album's release, the single "Picture Window" was released on Ben Folds' website.  A bootleg version of a song about Levi Johnston written by Hornby and Folds and performed by Folds, appeared on the internet. 

Personal life

Hornby has been married twice. He and his first wife have one son, born in 1993, who has autism.  Hornby's second wife is producer Amanda Posey. They have two sons, born in 2003 and 2005. Hornby's sister, writer Gill Hornby, is married to writer Robert Harris. 

Nick Hornby was directly involved in the creation of the charity Ambitious about Autism, then known as TreeHouse Trust, and its school TreeHouse School, as a result of trying to find specialist education for his son Danny.  Hornby remains a major donor to the charity and is still involved as a vice president. 

Nick proudly supports Arsenal Football Club.

Awards and honours

*1993 William Hill Sports Book of the Year, Fever Pitch
*1999 E. M. Forster Award
*2002 WH Smith Literary Award, How to be Good
*2002 National Book Critics Circle Award, shortlist, 31 Songs
*2003 London Award
*2005 Whitbread Novel Award, shortlist, A Long Way Down
*2008 ALA Best Books for Young Adults, Slam
*2012 British Sports Book Awards, Outstanding Contribution to Sports Writing  

Bibliography

Novels

*(1995) High Fidelity
*(1998) About a Boy
*(2001) How to Be Good
*(2005) A Long Way Down
*(2007) Slam
*(2009) Juliet, Naked
*(2014) Funny Girl

Screenplays 

* (2009) An Education — directed by Lone Scherfig
* (2014) Wild — directed by Jean-Marc Vallée
* (2015) Brooklyn — directed by John Crowley

TV Stories 

*(2016) Love, Nina

Short stories

*(1998) "Faith"
*(2000) "Nipple Jesus"
*(2005) "Not a Star"
*(2005) "Small Country"
*(2005) "Otherwise Pandemonium"
*(2012) "Everyone's Reading Bastard"

Non-fiction

* (1992) Contemporary American Fiction ISBN 0-312-04213-2
* (1992) Fever Pitch ISBN 0-14-029344-2
* (2003) 31 Songs ISBN 0-14-101340-0 (Also published as Songbook in the US, ISBN 1-57322-356-5)
* (2004) The Polysyllabic Spree ISBN 1-932416-24-2
* (2006) Housekeeping vs. the Dirt ISBN 1-932416-59-5
* (2008) Shakespeare Wrote for Money ISBN 1-934781-29-0
* (2012) More Baths Less Talking ISBN 978-1-938073-05-2
* (2013) Ten Years in the Tub ISBN 978-1-938073-73-1

Anthologies edited

* (1993) My Favourite Year: A Collection of Football Writing ISBN 0-7538-1441-2
* (1996) The Picador Book of Sportswriting ISBN 0-330-33133-7
* (2000) Speaking with the Angel ISBN 0-14-029678-6
* (2005) Otherwise Pandemonium ISBN 0-14-102251-5
* (2013) Ten Years in the Tub: A Decade Soaking in Great Books ISBN 978-1-938073-73-1

Film adaptations

* 1997 Fever Pitch — directed by David Evans; screenplay by Nick Hornby
* 2000 High Fidelity — directed by Stephen Frears
* 2002 About a Boy — directed by Chris and Paul Weitz
* 2005 Fever Pitch — directed by Bobby and Peter Farrelly
* 2013 About a Boy — television series
* 2014 A Long Way Down — directed by Pascal Chaumeil
Nick Hornby Hornby, Nick
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Nick Hornby
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