Arsenal fan Hornby joins premier league

He has built a career on the back of being the archetypal eternal student.

Now it seems Nick Hornby, the middleaged author obsessed with football, has finally decided to enjoy his wealth.

He is moving to a £3million Georgian property after years of living in modest homes in the shadow of his beloved Arsenal Football Club.

However, his new home will still put the writer of Fever Pitch a five-minute walk from Arsenal when the club moves to its new stadium at Drayton Park in 2006.

Hornby, 47, and his partner, producer Amanda Posey, have bought a disused fourstorey building and plan to convert it into a six-bedroom home.

It overlooks Highbury Fields, one of north London's most sought-after addresses. Built in 1790, it was used by a drapers' firm in the 19th century and in recent years has housed a firm of architects, a publishing company and a car showroom.

Planning papers before Islington council show the couple hope to add a basement extension and a balcony.

"When converted, it will be worth at least £3million," said Robert Scott of Highbury Community Association.

Maidenhead-born Hornby, who also wrote bestsellers High Fidelity and About A Boy, has said: "I don't have an extravagant lifestyle. My culture revolved around not having much money so it came too late for me at 35." His only ambition had been to live a "penalty kick" away from Arsenal's Highbury ground.

His obsession with the team started when he was 11 and since the early Nineties he has lived within a short stroll of the ground, first in a flat on Seven Sisters Road, later with his ex-wife Virginia in a terrace house in Finsbury Park.

He now lives in a terrace in nearby Northolme Road. One local said of Hornby's new home: "He'll be able to hear the crowd but won't smell the burger vans."