Elizabeth Day

Author

Elizabeth Day is a British journalist, broadcaster, author, and podcaster whose work spans fiction, memoir, and one of the most successful podcasts in the UK. Her writing and broadcasting explore failure, relationships, ambition, and the gap between how life looks from the outside and how it feels on the inside. Born in 1978, Day grew... up in Northern Ireland and studied English at Cambridge University. She has worked as a journalist for The Observer, the Evening Standard, and other publications, and has become one of the most prominent cultural commentators in British media. How to Fail with Elizabeth Day is her hugely successful podcast, in which she interviews guests about their most meaningful failures and what they learned from them. The podcast has featured hundreds of prominent guests and has been downloaded millions of times. It has spawned the book How to Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned from Things Going Wrong (2019) and Failosophy: A Handbook for When Things Go Wrong (2020). Her novels include Scissors, Paper, Stone, Home Fires, Paradise City, The Party, and Magpie — literary fiction that explores themes of class, ambition, grief, and the complexities of female friendship and marriage. Friendaholic: Confessions of a Friendship Addict (2023) was a non-fiction exploration of friendship, its importance, and its challenges. Day writes with warmth, honesty, and a journalist's eye for detail. Whether in fiction or non-fiction, she has a gift for capturing the emotional texture of modern life — the small humiliations, the unexpected moments of grace, and the way failure can be a source of growth. The audiobook editions of Day's books, many read by Day herself, are warm and engaging. Her books and audiobooks are essential for anyone who values honesty, vulnerability, and the courage to admit when things go wrong. Read more Show less