One nice thing about this film is that it includes some proper footage from Arsenal’s old stadium at Highbury. It can be hard to find I had to hit up a local video shop, which actually still exists in my hometown of Portland. Hornby did write the screenplay, so as a fellow writer, all I can say is that I hope he got a nice big check for rewriting his own book!įirth and Gemmell are fine, though, and aside from focusing too much on the relationship, it’s a fun film. In 1997, they made the British Fever Pitch film, with Colin Firth and Ruth Gemmell, basically all about the relationship - as films do. Well, this relationship was all the film industry needed to know about. Fever Pitch: The UK FilmĬolin Firth and that guy from Kingsmen, here in the UK film version of Fever Pitch. She enjoys the games, but she also has a life beyond them.

His wife seems to be into Arsenal, but in what you might call a normal way. When Hornby wrote the book he was married, and in the book he tells a few stories about their early days of dating. It starts with his dad (doesn’t it always?), haunts his childhood, confuses jobs and relationships, tortures his adulthood, and finally delivers ultimate bliss. Nothing else I’ve read comes close to describing the sports-fan experience nearly as well as this one.

But Hornby is, by his own admission, kind of a dick at times.īut he’s a terrific writer, and the book is lovely. We think of men who follow sports teams as somehow charming or maybe lacking a bit of perspective. And I am not even sure “obsessed” is the right word. In 1992 he wrote a memoir about a completely obsessed football fan. Nick Hornby is a lifelong Arsenal supporter in the real world. (Click the image to buy on Amazon.) Fever Pitch: The Book Cover of the first UK edition of Fever Pitch.

Fever pitch arsenal book