NICK HORNBY, the bestselling writer, has revealed the subject of his new comic novel: four suicidal strangers who make friends while trying to jump off the same tower block on New Year’s Eve.

Hornby, the author of Fever Pitch, High Fidelity and About a Boy, has also disclosed that he himself has had passing thoughts about committing suicide.

A Long Way Down, to be published next May, is set in Hornby’s familiar north London backdrop. “The idea began when I read that there were nights of the year when suicides spike,” he said. “If you’ve got a well known suicide spot, and a night of the year when people choose to die, people must see each other.”

During research for the novel, Hornby was surprised to discover his own occasional passing thoughts of suicide were not shared by everyone.

“Having talked to a couple of friends, I was quite startled that some had never thought of suicide, and I suspect those people are in a minority. Most people in their darkest moments have had that speculation. I know I have, though the characters in my novel have taken it a stage further.”

One of the four characters is Martin Sharp, a breakfast TV presenter in disgrace after sleeping with a 15-year-old girl. There is also a would-be rock guitarist called JJ and Jess, a lonely young woman grieving over the disappearance of her sister.

Hornby said the character he most identified with was Maureen, the mother of a seriously disabled boy. He told The Bookseller magazine: “I have a child with a disability (autism). Once you’re in that world of disability and carers, the stories you hear are astonishingly powerful.”

Last week Hornby said he had suffered from depression in his late teens and twenties, before going into Jungian therapy. He said: “I’ve rarely met anyone who could not benefit from therapy. I feel sad that it’s rather dismissed. I think the English think it is a bit soft.”

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