This year marks the twentieth anniversary of Nick Hornby’s ode to Arsenal Football Club, Fever Pitch. I watched the film a good three years ago and remarked favourably upon it, having enjoyed the dramedy as well as the way the character’s passion for the beautiful game was translated onto the screen, so thought now would be as good a time as any to read the seminal book from which it came from.
I was hooked from the off. The book is an autobiographical account of how Hornby, a Maidenhead boy, came to fall so violently in love with a team 30 miles away from him. It stemmed from his parents divorcing, and his father, desperate to find ways to bond with his somewhat estranged son, speculatively taking him to an Arsenal game in the hope that Nick would enjoy it.
