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Is Fever Pitch better as a book or a film? This week on Is the Book Better?, I’m comparing Nick Hornby’s 1992 football memoir Fever Pitch with the 1997 film adaptation starring Colin Firth and Ruth Gemmell.

As an Arsenal fan myself, I should be the perfect audience for Hornby’s all-consuming obsession with Arsenal Football Club — but even I think he might need to calm down a bit.

I get into why the film’s added romance actually makes the story work better, why Colin Firth makes the lead infinitely more likeable, and why I’m obsessed with the 90s British fashion, old Highbury, vintage Arsenal shirts and the general late-80s/90s football aesthetic.

We also talk George Graham’s Arsenal, the legendary 1988–89 title race, Liverpool vs Arsenal at Anfield and Michael Thomas’ iconic title-winning goal, plus what Fever Pitch gets right about football fandom, relationships, masculinity, fathers and sons, and loving a football club far more than is probably healthy.

And I’ve even got a real-life Fever Pitch story involving a Leicester City season ticket, a marriage ultimatum, a Premier League title… and a divorce.

Nick Hornby vs Colin Firth. Book vs movie. Arsenal vs having a functioning adult relationship.

So… is the book better?

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