Funny Girl takes place in a swinging 60s where the nation is mesmerized by unlikely comedy star Sophie Straw, the former Blackpool beauty queen who just wants to make people laugh, like her heroine Lucille Ball. Behind the scenes, the cast and crew are having the time of their lives. But when the script begins to get a bit too close to home, and life starts imitating art, they all face a choice.The writers, Tony and Bill, comedy obsessives, each harbour a secret. The Oxbridge-educated director, Dennis, loves his job but hates his marriage. The male star Clive, feels he’s destined for better things. And Sophie Straw, who’s changed her name and abandoned her old life, must decide whether to keep going, or change the channel…

Juliet, Naked is bestselling author Nick Hornby's moving, funny account of life's second chances. Annie's put fifteen years into safe, slightly obsessive Duncan, and now she'd like her money back, please. It's time to move on. But she lives in Gooleness, the north's answer to a question nobody asked. Is she really going to find real, proper, feel-it-deep-down-in-your-boots love on a damp and windy seafront? Or perhaps she should follow her heart and pursue Tucker, the reclusive American rock star, who keeps emailing her his smart advice. But between Annie and her second chance lie a few obstacles. There's Malcolm, the world's most judgemental therapist, and Barnesy, the north's most extrovert dancer. There's what men and women will do and won't do for love. And, of course, there's Tucker... Hilarious and tender, this bestselling novel will move you in ways both profound and surprising. It's Nick Hornby at his brilliant best. If you like David Nicholls, David Sedaris and Jonathan Coe you will love this book. Hornby's best novel to date. (Spectator). Sharply funny, touching. (Daily Telegraph). Pitch-perfect. (Observer). Nick Hornby has captivated readers and achieved wide critical acclaim for his comic, well-observed novels About a Boy, How to be Good, A Long Way Down (shortlisted for the Whitbread Award), Slam and High Fidelity. His three works of non-fiction, 31 Songs (shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award), Fever Pitch (winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award) and The Complete Polysyllabic Spree are also available from Penguin.

Nick Hornby's second bestselling novel is about sex, manliness and fatherhood. Will is thirty-six, comfortable and child-free. And he's discovered a brilliant new way of meeting women — through single-parent groups. Marcus is twelve and a little bitnerdish: he's got the kind of mother who made him listen to Joni Mitchell rather than Nirvana. Perhaps they can help each other out a little bit, and both can start to act their age.

How to be Good is Nick Hornby's hilarious bestselling novel on life, love and charity.

A Long Way Down — Nick Hornby's hilarious bestseller now a major motion picture starring Pierce Brosnan. 'Can I explain why I wanted to jump off the top of a tower block?' For disgraced TV presenter Martin Sharp the answer's pretty simple: he has, in his own words, 'pissed his life away'. And on New Year's Eve he's going to end it all... but not, as it happens, alone. Because first single-mum Maureen, then eighteen-year-old Jess and lastly American rock-god JJ turn up and crash Martin's private party. They've stolen his idea — but brought their own reasons. Yet it's hard to jump when you've got an audience queuing impatiently behind you. A few heated words and some slices if cold pizza later and these four strangers are suddenly allies. But is their unlikely friendship a good enough reason to carry on living? Shortlisted for the 2005 Whitbread Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize, A Long Way Down is a darkly hilarious and moving novel by bestselling author Nick Hornby. If you like Jonathan Coe, David Sedaris and David Nicholls, you will love this book. A page-turning plot and rich, funny characters with several big laughs on every page... Hornby's best yet. (Literary Review). Hornby's best novel to date, impossible to put down... how can an examination of four people's anguish be so enthralling? (Ruth Rendell, Guardian). Masterful... some of the finest writing, and some of the most outstanding characters I've ever had the pleasure of reading. (Johnny Depp). Nick Hornby has captivated readers and achieved widespread critical acclaim for his comic, well-observed novels About a Boy, How to be Good, Juliet, Naked, Slam and High Fidelity. His three works of non-fiction, 31 Songs (shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award), Fever Pitch (winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award) and The Complete Polysyllabic Spree are also available from Penguin.

«'I decided that I wanted to write a little book of essays about songs I loved...Songs are what I listen to, almost to the exclusion of everything else.' In his first non-fiction work since «Fever Pitch», Nick Hornby writes about 31 songs that either have some great significance in his life — or are just songs that he loves. He discusses, among other things, guitar solos and losing your virginity to a Rod Stewart song and singers whose teeth whistle and the sort of music you hear in Body Shop. 'The soundtrack to his life...a revealing insight into one of Britain's most popular writers' — Evening Standard.»

New York Times-bestselling author Nick Hornby mines the hearts and psyches of four lost souls who connect just when they've reached the end of the line. A LONG WAY DOWN is now a major motion picture from Magnolia Pictures starring Pierce Brosnan, Toni Collette, Aaron Paul, and Imogen Poots. Meet Martin, JJ, Jess, and Maureen. Four people who come together on New Year's Eve: a former TV talk show host, a musician, a teenage girl, and a mother. Three are British, one is American. They encounter one another on the roof of Topper's House, a London destination famous as the last stop for those ready to end their lives. In four distinct and riveting first-person voices, Nick Hornby tells a story of four individuals confronting the limits of choice, circumstance, and their own mortality. This is a tale of connections made and missed, punishing regrets, and the grace of second chances. Intense, hilarious, provocative, and moving, A LONG WAY DOWN is a novel about suicide that is, surprisingly, full of life.

The Complete Polysyllabic Spree is Nick Hornby's wickedly funny journey through reading. This is not a book of reviews. This not a book that sneers at other books. This is a book about reading — about enjoying books wherever and however you find them. Nick Hornby, author of the bestsellers About a Boy and Fever Pitch — takes us on a hilarious and perceptive tour through the books he bought, the books he read and his thoughts on literature. He is first and foremost a reader and he approaches books like the rest of us: hoping to pick up one he can't put down. The Complete Polysyllabic Spree is a diary of sorts, charting his reading life over two years. It is a celebration of why we read — its pleasures, its disappointments and its surprises. And above all, it is for you — the ever hopeful reader. For fans of Bill Bryson and Stephen Fry, and for bookworms eveywhere, this witty, passionate book will make you cherish the world of letters anew.

Stuff I've Been Reading by Nick Hornby — the bestselling novelist's rich, witty and inspiring reading diary. Read what you enjoy, not what bores you, Nick Hornby tells us. And in this new collection of his columns from the Believer magazine (taking off where The Complete Polysyllabic Spree finished), he shows us how it's done. Or at least, how he does it: whether plunging into a biography of Dickens whilst his children are destroying something in the room next door or devouring a whole series of children's books whilst on holiday. Hornby is the intelligent, committed but sceptical reader we'd all like to be. Admiring Ian McEwen's On Chesil Beach, he points out a surprising anachronism. Reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road, he wonders why 'unflinching' is a term of praise among critics. And who but Nick Hornby could successfully juxtapose a discussion of a book on the Band with one on the Stasi? These accounts of one reader's experience of buying and reading, and sometimes not reading, books differ from all other reviews or critical appreciations — they take into account the role that books actually play in the lives of readers. This book, which is classic Hornby, confirms the novelist's status as one of the world's most exciting curators of culture. It will be loved by fans of About a Boy and High Fidelity, as well as readers of Will Self, Zadie Smith, Stewart Lee and Charlie Brooker. Nick Hornby has captivated readers and achieved widespread critical acclaim for his comic, well-observed novels About a Boy, High Fidelity, How to be Good, A Long Way Down (shortlisted for the Whitbread Award), Slam and Juliet, Naked. His four additional works of non-fiction, Fever Pitch, 31 Songs (shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award), The Complete Polysyllabic Spree and Pray are also available from Penguin.

This is the Twentieth Anniversary Edition. As a young boy, growing up in London and watching his parents' marriage fall apart, Nick Hornby — author of High Fidelity, About a Boy, and The Complete Polysyllabic Spree — had little sense of home. Then his dad took him to Highbury. Arsenal's football ground would become the source of many of the strongest feelings he'd ever have: joy, humiliation, heartbreak, frustration, and hope. In this hilarious, moving and now-classic book, he vividly depicts his childhood life, his time as a teacher, and his first loves (after football), all through the prism of the game, as he insightfully and brilliantly explores obsession, and the way it can shape a life.

A dozen of the most successful and popular writers today including: Helen Fielding, Robert Harris, Patrick Marber, Zadie Smith, John O'Farrell, Roddy Doyle, Melissa Bank and Irvine Welsh have written 6000-word fictional monologues along the lines of Alan Bennet's Talking Heads. And Colin Firth makes his debut as a fiction writer. The result is a book of completely original stories that have heart, soul and wit. All the writers have given their work free, and Penguin is giving GBP1 per copy sold to the TreeHouse Trust, a charity which is setting up a unique school for autistic children.

Nick Hornby's second bestselling novel is about sex, manliness and fatherhood. Will is thirty-six, comfortable and child-free. And he's discovered a brilliant new way of meeting women — through single-parent groups. Marcus is twelve and a little bitnerdish: he's got the kind of mother who made him listen to Joni Mitchell rather than Nirvana. Perhaps they can help each other out a little bit, and both can start to act their age.

Slam is a hilarious coming-of-age novel by bestselling author Nick Hornby 'There was this time when everything seemed to have come together. And so obviously it was time to go and screw it all up.' Sam is sixteen and a skater. Just so there are no terrible misunderstandings: skating = skateboarding. There's no ice. Life is ticking along nicely for Sam; his Mum's got rid of her rubbish boyfriend, he's thinking about college and he's met someone. Alicia. Then a little accident happens. One with big consequences for someone just finding his way in life. Sam can't run (let alone skate) away from this one. He's a boy facing a man's problems and the question is — has he got what it takes to confront them? Slam, from the acclaimed author of About a Boy and High Fidelity is a teenage novel about a boy who has to grow up in big, big hurry. It is The Catcher in the Rye for the 21st century. 'Very funny...very real' Daily Telegraph 'Hornby gets his point across with the subtlety and skill of a born novelist who always deserves to be read' Independent 'A moving read for anyone' Elle Nick Hornby has captivated readers and achieved widespread critical acclaim for his comic, well-observed adult novels About a Boy, A Long Way Down, Juliet, Naked, How to be Good and High Fidelity. His three works of non-fiction, 31 Songs (shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award), Fever Pitch (winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award) and The Complete Polysyllabic Spree are also available from Penguin.

Warum kauft man sich manche Bücher und fängt sie noch auf dem Heimweg an, während andere im Regal verschimmeln? Und wie ändern sich Lesegewohnheiten, wenn plötzlich ein Baby da ist und Zeit und Ruhe an allen Ecken und Enden fehlen? Wie schafft man es, dennoch zu lesen? Und zwar das Richtige?

What happens when a washed-up musician looks for anther chance? And a childless woman looks for a change? Juliet, Naked is a powerfully engrossing, humorous novel about music, love, loneliness, and the struggle to live up to one's promise.

When you're 36, going on 18, life is about being hip, being cool, and embracing all that Mothercare has to offer... Nick Hornby's best-selling novel is now a phenomenally successful film starring Hugh Grant, from the makers of Four Weddings & A Funeral, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones's Diary. Starring: Hugh Grant (Bridget Jones's Diary); Toni Collette (Muriel's Wedding); Rachel Weisz (The Mummy Returns) and Nicholas Hoult as Marcus. Written & Directed By Chris and Paul Weitz. Produced By Eric Fellner, Tim Bevan and Robert de Niro.

Twelve of the most successful and popular writers of today — including Helen Fielding, Robert Harris, Zadie Smith, Patrick Marber and Irvine Welsh — have written 6000-word fictional monologues along the lines of Alan Bennetts Talking Heads.