Nick Hornby

This week Sue Lawley's castaway is the internationally successful author Nick Hornby. Originally from suburban Maidenhead, his obsession with football, as chronicled in the autobiographical Fever Pitch, began after his parents divorced and his dad struggled to find a suitable way to pass the weekend. The decision to visit Arsenal had lasting repercussions with Hornby becoming a fanatical supporter.

His next work, High Fidelity, featured Horrnby's other great passion - pop music. It became a bible for all men who've ever catalogued their record collections in alphabetical order or agonised over their own Desert Island Discs choices. His next book, About a Boy, resulted in a bidding war with Robert De Niro's film company buying the rights for £2 million. How to Be Good, which followed, changed tack with a female narrator and is in part autobiographical reflecting the pros and cons of a virtuous life - questions he's had to ask following the birth of his son Danny who suffers from severe autism. He's since set up the TreeHouse Fund, a national charity for autism which has a school in London.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Kitty's Back by Bruce Springsteen Book: Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens Luxury: An mp3 player (iPod)