Nick Hornby

Ben Folds and Nick Hornby proudly present…

NickHornby — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:20:44 +0000

Ben Folds and Nick Hornby proudly present, on September 28th…

http://www.nonesuch.com/journal/ben-folds-adds-music-to-nick-hornby-s-words-for-lonely-avenue-due-september-28-on-nonesuch-2010-06-14

As the advertisement says…

NickHornby — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 10:22:06 +0000

As the advertisement says: it means more when there’s money on it, and in our house, every single game between anyone at all means at least a little.

I had England to win two-nil on Saturday night. If only I knew someone who was a decent tipster:

http://www.gq.com/sports/guides/201006/world-cup/nick-hornby-vs-sean-wilsey-world-cup-2010#ixzz0qoud7VQ5

Exciting news…

NickHornby — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:26:58 +0000

I have been nominated by the American Biographical Institute, Inc “to receive the GOLD MEDAL FOR ENGLAND (their caps), in the name of your people and England.” My acceptance, the ABI tells me, will solidify my achievements “into tangible form – an elegant showpiece for any home or office … Every eye that is cast upon the plaque will immediately perceive the profundity of your impression on your country.” I am, as you can imagine, both flattered and honoured, although there doesn’t seem to be a ceremony celebrating the achievement; I accept by post, and the medal will be sent by return. I have to accompany my acceptance with a cheque for $295, presumably to cover the Institute’s administration costs, but still … And those who wonder how the American Biographical Institute are capable of judging the profundity of my impression on my country can get stuffed. If they can see it from all the way over there, then, like the Great Wall of China, it’s probably visible from space.

I am clearly not a natural blogger …

NickHornby — Thu, 06 May 2010 10:24:55 +0000

… weeks go by before I feel compelled to post anything on this site. Words don’t come very easily to me, which, given my profession, is a worrying impediment. I am always amazed when editors, at publishing houses and newspapers, tell me (and they do, often) that a certain writer has submitted something that is a thousand or ten thousand or one hundred thousand words longer than they had anticipated. Theses writers, I suspect, would have no trouble contributing a couple of little items a week to a blog. My problem is the reverse: I am always fearful that whatever I’m working on will turn out to be ruinously short. Of course, I believe that the other way indicates the superior talent. I wonder whether the writers from whom words seem to pour unstoppably envy my problem? I don’t suppose they do.

My advice to you:

NickHornby — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:07:42 +0000

My advice to you: if you get nominated for an Oscar, don’t play it cool. Not the first time it happens, anyway. In the event of multiple nominations over several years, you’re allowed to skip a couple of parties; if you’re a novice, however, you should really make the effort. I did, and I don’t regret a second of it.

Impressions of the weekend, in no particular order: our producer, Finola Dwyer an Oscar nominee too – on the verge of being escorted from the Kodak Theatre after a ticketless visit to the toilet, moments before the ceremony started; T-Bone Burnett and Michael Giacchino, musical geniuses both, deep in conversation at the Vanity Fair party, statuettes dangling casually from their hands; my new friend Geoffrey Fletcher’s genuine incomprehension when it was announced that he’d won an Oscar for his Precious screenplay; Piers Morgan, penned in behind the press cordon on the red carpet (his frustration and bewilderment were almost tangible); Colin Firth, inches away from us and trying not to make eye-contact, as he read the Academy’s tribute to ‘An Education’ from the autocue; Carey Mulligan’s face as the acceptance speeches for Best Documentary Short, the category she was presenting, degenerated into an unfortunate but amusing farce. (There was, apparently, some ill-will between the producer and the director.) And, inevitably, I was directly involved in a great deal of A-list celebrity obsequiousness, although I will spare the blushes of the A-list celebrities involved. (They might not want people to know that they suck up to writers.) Disappointingly, just about everyone I met over the last six months has been lovely, or at least faultlessly polite. There is only one fellow nominee I wouldn’t be pleased to run into again, and that was someone I had expected to like.

And now it’s over. I haven’t really written anything since I finished ‘Juliet, Naked’, a year ago, and though I will miss being in the same room as Meryl Streep, it’s time to get back to work. It may not be what I do best (I’m actually pretty good at being in the same room as Meryl Streep), but it’s what I get paid for.

The Oscar Nominees’ lunch …

NickHornby — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:06:15 +0000

The Oscar Nominees’ lunch a couple of weeks ago was an extremely jolly affair. After our group photo, we were called up onto a stage, one by one, to be given our nomination certificates, while the rest of the class whooped and clapped. We were called up in reverse alphabetical order (Hans Zimmer, who composed the score for ‘Sherlock Holmes’, was first up); I was worried that, as I’m nearer the beginning of the alphabet than the end, nobody famous would be left to clap me. But then I scanned the faces, and put names to them: Bullock. Bridges. Clooney. Gyllenhaal. There were plenty of A-Gs.

“It’s the nicest part”, a previous nominee told me before the lunch. “There are no losers yet, just people delighted to have been nominated. After that, it all gets depressing.” I told him that it couldn’t get depressing for us. We know we can’t win any of our three categories, and we’re still euphoric about the distance that our small movie has travelled. But this week, the tenor of the online conversation has changed. On In Contention (an invaluable, readable and always trustworthy companion during this whole business) Kris Tapley notes that Carey Mulligan’s early buzz “seemed to dwindle throughout the fall awards season”, as Sandra Bullock started winning prizes; another website predicts that we will be one of only (!) one-hundred and thirty-five or so Best Picture nominees in history to collect no Oscars whatsover. (We’ll be in good company. ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘The Maltese Falcon’ didn’t win anything either.) Ah, yes. When did it all go wrong for Carey? It must have been at some point between her Oscar nomination and her BAFTA win.

What’s happening . . .

NickHornby — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:56:58 +0000

So far, 2010 has been eaten away by ‘An Education’, but after the Oscars, it’s back to work. I’m going to concentrate on two or three film and TV projects this year, all of which are at very early stages. I have, however, returned to my ‘Stuff I’ve Been Reading’ column in The Believer, I’m happy to say, after eighteen months away. I’m racing through David Kynaston’s brilliant Austerity Britain, almost certainly to the bemusement of the young American readers of the magazine. Serves them right. Meanwhile, Ben Folds is mixing ‘our’ album, which should be out in the spring. And Juliet, Naked is out now in paperback.

There is, it turns out …

NickHornby — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:32:54 +0000

There is, it turns out, a lot of paperwork associated with an Oscar nomination. Yesterday we had to sign a form promising that we wouldn’t sell our statuettes; we also had to fill out a questionnaire which asked us, among other things, which of our fellow nominees we would like to meet. My wife, after thinking about it for a good three seconds, replied “George Clooney.” She stuck an exclamation mark after his name. Somewhere in Los Angeles, an official of the Academy of Arts and Motion Pictures is putting all the requests to meet George Clooney in one mountainous pile.

Sky must just be grateful …

NickHornby — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:05:02 +0000

“Sky must just be grateful they were not showing this turn-off in 3D. That would have trebled the torture,” said the Daily Mirror’s John Cross yesteday, about Wednesday’’s terrible Arsenal v Liverpool game. I’m not sure whether it’s his maths that’s bad, or his science.

I wish …

NickHornby — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:24:22 +0000

I wish that every single one of the Arsenal fans who were in the stadium to see their team’s pathetic surrender to Man Utd, could be nominated for an Oscar, as I was yesterday. I have to say, Oscar nominations really help to assuage football-related disappointment. My wife, who doesn’t get to the games very often now that one of the children has commandeered her season ticket, was sitting next to me on Sunday; she got a nomination too. And so did Colin Firth, who was right behind the goal where Rooney scored. That may be it, as far as recently Oscar-nominated Arsenal fans go (unless Meryl Streep is a Gooner). In terms of the collective London N5 feelgood factor, it’s nowhere near enough.