(c) Sane Seven
Elizabeth Day is an award-winning author and broadcaster and founder of Daylight Productions.
Her chart-topping podcast, How To Fail With Elizabeth Day, is a celebration of all of the things that haven’t gone right. Every week, in a one-on-one interview, a guest discusses what they have learned from failure.
Previous guests of How to Fail include Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Malcolm Gladwell, Stanley Tucci, Jamie Dornan, Gloria Steinem, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Andrew Scott, Adam Buxton and Bernadine Evaristo.
In 2019 it won the Rising Star Award at the British Podcast Awards. In 2020, Elizabeth was given a prestigious Harper’s Bazaar ‘Women of the Year’ award for ‘bringing solace to the nation with her sensitivity and wit.’
The podcast has been featured on multiple broadcast shows, including The Russell Howard Hour, The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show, The Sara Cox Show and The Chris Evans Breakfast Show.
It was listed as one of BBC America’s Most Buzzworthy Podcasts of 2018. In print, it has been featured in Grazia, The Times, Harper’s Bazaar, the Independent, the Guardian.
The 2019/20 How To Fail Live nationwide tour played to multiple sell-out venues across the country, including dates at The London Palladium, The National Theatre and the Southbank Centre in London, and iconic venues such as The Lowry in Salford and The Mac in Belfast.
Elizabeth has written two books off the back of the podcast: How To Fail: Everything I’ve Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong, is part-memoir, part-manifesto. It is also a Sunday Times top 5 bestseller.
Failosophy: A Handbook For When Things Go Wrong was described by Alain de Botton as ‘beautiful, timely and humane.’
To date, Elizabeth has written five novels and three works of non-fiction which collectively have gained her a Betty Trask Award, Observer Book of the Year, and a Richard and Judy Summer Book Club pick.
Her fifth novel, Magpie, became an instant Sunday Times bestseller and was described as ‘the most gripping psychological thriller of the year’. Her most recent work of non-fiction, Friendaholic: Confessions of a Friendship Addict, entered the Sunday Times bestseller charts at number one. Her work has been translated into several languages and she is a bestselling author in Holland and Italy. She is currently working on her new novel.
Alongside her writing, Elizabeth is an adept broadcaster. She has presented the Sky Arts Book Club Live, BBC Radio 4’s Open Book and shows on Classic FM.
Elizabeth grew up in Northern Ireland and her first job was for The Derry Journal.
Since graduating from Cambridge University with a Double First in History, she has worked for The Evening Standard, The Sunday Telegraph and the Observer where she was a staff feature writer for eight years.
She won a British Press Award in 2004 for Young Journalist of the Year and was Highly Commended as Feature Writer of the Year in 2013.
She has written for numerous publications since then, including The Times, the Guardian, New York Magazine, the Observer, Vogue, Grazia, Elle and Vanity Fair.
From 2018-2021 she had a weekly column for You Magazine on the Mail on Sunday. She is proud to be an ambassador for Samaritans.
Elizabeth is a sought-after public speaker, and has delivered talks and workshops to numerous organisations including Google, Facebook, HSBC, JP Morgan, Netflix, Barclays, Mishcon de Reya and the Guardian Masterclass series.
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