A top-selling English author, he is best known for his novels High Fidelity (1995) and About a Boy (1998), both of which were made into popular films. His 1992 autobiographical work, Fever Pitch, won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award and was also adapted into a film. He studied English at Jesus College, Cambridge. Early in his literary career he received the W.H. Smith Award for Fiction for his 2001 novel, How to Be Good.
