17 April 2008

Meet the Author: Nick Hornby

Last week I attended the inaugural Meet the Author event at the iTunes store in Regent Street. Each month iTunes are inviting an author to the store to talk about their work. The interview is recorded in front of a live audience and then put up on iTunes as a podcast.

The first author to participate was one of my favourites: Nick Hornby. It was a great interview and Nick was utterly charming. It was fascinating to hear the challenges he faced in portraying the character of Sam, the teenage protagonist of his latest novel, Slam. You can listen to the interview here

Since then I’ve been listening to Slam. It is brilliantly read by Nicholas Hoult, who first came to fame by playing Marcus in the movie adaptation of About a Boy but who is more recently known for his role in Skins. It is a great reading and he really brings the character to life… almost too much as you can practically visualise him as he talks! A champion of ‘lad-lit’, this is Nick’s first novel which is aimed at teenagers. The book has been well received and I found it made engaging listening… certainly one that grown-ups can enjoy too! To download the book go here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sam Conniff, the guy who interviewed Nick Hornby is like a David Brent character! He thinks he's really young and cool and really embarrasses himself and Hornby obviously curls his toes too! Someone needs to tell him how silly he comes across.