Nick Hornby Hornby, the chairman of London and Continental Railways, and Margaret Audrey, Lady 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. 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
The Football Factory (novel) own assessments of opposing players and supporters. The role of a sensationalist media and the hypocrisy of the political classes is highlighted in relation to football-connected violence, with modern warfare brought into the equation. London is shown in detail, the allegiance to a football club as an extension of community, in many cases involving populations that have been displaced. Whether it is a street, pub, greasy spoon, Indian restaurant or launderette, the reader will know which part of London they are seeing. On its release "The Football Factory" was heralded as a ‘state of the nation’ novel by some reviewers,