Way before I moved to London and way before I started comedy I was having a bit of a lousy time, moved back in to my mum’s, signing on, no direction - the usual.
I hadn’t read a book for bleedin ages and one day decided to get one, i used to read loads. So into the local book shop I went, and for some reason came about with a book about Arsenal.
I don’t really actually like football, but the book looked good, it was called Fever Pitch, by a chap called Nick Hornby, this was about 1998 and I’d never heard of him.
I bloody loved it, and it was the thing that started me thinking about writing (I started to write a kinda novel thing at the age of 18, all I’ll say about it ten years on is it was very, very bad) and got myself back on track and the like.
A few years later I was in London and a bit after that I ended up involved in comedy, then stand up, then etc etc.
So, I’ve always slightly exalted Fever Pitch as what started me off on it all, and over the years I’ve tried to re-read it a few times and have always struggled to get back into it. Though never then trying too hard in case I see it as disappointing and therefore ruining any of the life symmetry i so love.
But, after another spate of reading lots I finally got round to re-reading it again, and loved it… and am currently near the end of re-reading High Fidelity too (which is making me make lists of everything).
I love Hornby’s writing style, and I guess mine is influenced a bit by it. This was confirmed this week when I got a reply from someone about some treatment thing I’d written with the comment “It reads very much like Nick Hornby”
So, there you go, I’m neither original nor subtle.
But I don’t mind
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