Hornby published his first book in 1992, a collection of essays about American writers such as Tobias Wolff and Ann Beattie, titled Contemporary American Fiction. Hornby’s second book, Fever Pitch, also published in 1992, is an autobiographical story detailing his fanatical support for Arsenal Football Club. As a result, Hornby received the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. In 1997, the memoir was adapted for film in the UK, and in 2005 an American remake was released, following Jimmy Fallon’s character’s obsession with the Boston Red Sox, a baseball team. With the book’s success, Hornby began to publish articles in the Sunday Times, Time Out and the Times Literary Supplement, in addition to his music reviews for the New Yorker.

Hornby has been married twice. He and his first wife have one son, born in 1993, who has autism. Hornby’s second wife is producer Amanda Posey. They have two sons, born in 2001 and 2004. Hornby’s sister, writer Gill Hornby, is married to writer Robert Harris.

High Fidelity — his third book and first novel — was published in 1995. The novel, about a neurotic record collector and his failed relationships, was adapted into a 2000 American film starring John Cusack, a Broadway musical in 2006, and a television show High Fidelity starring Zoë Kravitz in 2020.

His second novel, About a Boy, published in 1998, is about two “boys” — Marcus, an awkward yet endearing adolescent from a single-parent family, and the free-floating, mid-30s Will Freeman, who overcomes his own immaturity and self-centredness through his growing relationship with Marcus. Hugh Grant and Nicholas Hoult starred in the 2002 film version. In 1999, Hornby received the E. M. Forster Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

About a Boy was adapted for television and aired on NBC from 22 February 2014 to 17 February 2015. The show was developed by Jason Katims and it is the second adaptation based on the 1998 novel. The series stars David Walton, Minnie Driver and Benjamin Stockham.

Several of Hornby’s books have made the jump from page to screen. Hornby wrote the screenplay for the first, a 1997 British adaptation of Fever Pitch, starring Colin Firth. It was followed by High Fidelity in 2000, starring John Cusack, with the action shifted from London to Chicago. After this success, About a Boy was quickly picked up, and released in 2002, starring Hugh Grant. An Americanized Fever Pitch, in which Jimmy Fallon plays a hopelessly addicted Boston Red Sox fan who tries to reconcile his love of the game with that of his girlfriend (Drew Barrymore), was released in 2005. Johnny Depp purchased film rights to the book A Long Way Down before it was published. The book was made into the 2014 film of the same name starring Pierce Brosnan, Aaron Paul, Toni Collette and Imogen Poots. The film adaptation of Juliet, Naked was released in 2018 starring Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke and Chris O’Dowd.

Hornby’s next novel, How to Be Good, was published in 2001. The female protagonist in the novel explores contemporary morals, marriage and parenthood. It was long listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2001 and won the W.H. Smith Award for Fiction in 2002.

Part of the money he earned with his next book, Speaking with the Angel in 2002, was donated to TreeHouse, a charity for children with autism, the disorder that affects Hornby’s own son. He was editor of the book, which contained twelve short stories written by his friends. He also contributed to the collection with the story “NippleJesus”.

In 2003, Hornby wrote a collection of essays on selected popular songs and the emotional resonance they carry, called 31 Songs (known in the US as Songbook). Also in 2003, Hornby was awarded the London Award 2003, an award that was selected by fellow writers.

Hornby’s novel A Long Way Down was published in 2005, with a film version of this book released in 2014. It was on the shortlist for the Whitbread Novel Award. Hornby has also edited two sports-related anthologies: My Favourite Year and The Picador Book of Sports Writing.

Hornby’s book Slam was published on 16 October 2007; it is his first novel for young adults and was recognised as a 2008 ALA Best Books for Young Adults. The protagonist of Slam is a 16-year-old skateboarder named Sam, whose life changes drastically when his girlfriend gets pregnant.

Hornby’s following novel, titled Juliet, Naked, was published in September 2009. Addressing similar themes as his earlier novel High Fidelity, the book is about a reclusive 1980s rock star who is forced out of isolation, after the re-release of his most famous album brings him into contact with some of his most passionate fans.

In 2009, Hornby adapted an autobiographical memoir by the journalist Lynn Barber for the screen as An Education, a feature film starring Peter Sarsgaard and Carey Mulligan. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and for two BAFTAs.

In 2010, Hornby co-founded the Ministry of Stories, a non-profit organisation in East London dedicated to helping children and young adults develop writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.

Hornby has also had extensive collaboration with American singer/songwriter Ben Folds. Their album Lonely Avenue was released in September 2010. Folds wrote the music, with Hornby contributing lyrics. Prior to the album’s release, the single “Picture Window” was released on Ben Folds’ website. A bootleg version of a song about Levi Johnston written by Hornby and Folds and performed by Folds, appeared on the internet. Remaining Hornby lyrics provided the title song of the 2012 Ben Folds Five reunion album, The Sound of the Life of the Mind.

In 2010 Nick Hornby co-founded Ministry of Stories, a writing charity based in Hoxton, east London. The charity was inspired by Dave Eggers’ 826 Valencia model in San Francisco and aims to offer young people a chance to develop writing and literacy skills and develop a love of writing for pleasure.

Hornby discussed his bouts of depression in 2012 on the BBC Radio 4 broadcast of “Fever Pitched: Twenty Years On”.

In 2014, Hornby adapted another autobiographical memoir, Cheryl Strayed’s Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. Wild, which starred Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern, was nominated for Best Actress for Witherspoon and Best Supporting Actress for Dern. Speaking on the challenge of adapting such a packed book, Hornby said it was really a case of boiling everything down and making the realisation that he could have made a two-hour film without mentioning walking at all.

In 2015, he wrote the script for the film Brooklyn, an adaptation of Colm Tóibín’s novel of the same name. Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph said it was “his strongest work ever as a screenwriter”. According to Metacritic, the film is on eighty “top 10” lists for 2015. He was nominated for his second Oscar for writing the screenplay and received two BAFTA nominations, winning one.

In 2016, Hornby adapted Nina Stibbe’s book Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life into a television series. Love, Nina received its debut on BBC One on 20 May 2016, and ran for five episodes.

Hulu premiered a 10-episode reboot of High Fidelity starring Zoë Kravitz on 14 February 2020.