Fever Pitch

Fever Pitch is both an autobiography and a footballing bible rolled into one. Nick Hornby pinpoints 1968 as his formative year- the year he turned 11, the year his parents separated, and the year his father first took him to watch Arsenal play. The author quickly moved 'way beyond fandom' into an extreme obsession that has dominated his life, loves, and relationships. His father had initially hoped that Saturday afternoon matches would draw the two closer together, but instead Hornby became completely besotted with the game at the expense of any conversation. Fever Pitch is not a typical memoir- there are no chapters, just a series of match reports falling into three time frames (childhood, young adulthood, manhood). Fever Pitch reveals the very special intricacies of British football, which readers new to the game will find astonishing, and which Hornby presents with remarkable humour and honesty--the 'unique' chants sung at matches, the cold rain- soaked terraces, giant cans of warm beer, the trains known as football specials carrying fans to and from matches in prison-like conditions, bottles smashing on the tracks, thousands of police officers waiting in anticipation for the cargo of hooligans. The sport and one team in particular have crept into every aspect of Hornby's life- making him see the world through Arsenal-tinted spectacles.