Sam, the narrator of Nick Hornby’s first teenage novel, is 18, writing about when he was 16; a time when he regularly had imaginary conversations with his hero Tony Hawk. For those who don’t already know, Tony Hawk – not be confused with Tony Hawks, whose idea of exercise is to go around Ireland with a fridge or to get a piano to the Pyrenees – is the name in skateboarding. (His father founded the National Skateboard Association for him.)

          Sam has TH’s poster on his wall and claims to have read the man’s autobiography 50 (or thousands of) times. In fact, many of the answers that Hawk "gives" Sam are direct quotes from the autobiography, which is why, as Sam is the first to admit, they don’t always seem to exactly fit the questions (and can be a bit American).

          The reader very quickly gets a sense of Sam, a young 16-year-old with a mother who had him when she was 16 and who still looks young and pretty enough to be fancied by Sam’s mate Rabbit. Sam, Rabbit and Rubbish skate together. ("Skating = skateboarding. We never say skateboarding.") Rubbish "can’t really skate, which is why he’s called Rubbish, but [he] at least talks sense". Rabbit (a great supporting character), on the other hand, is an OK skater but "such a moron that it sort of went beyond laughing".