Elizabeth Day

Elizabeth Day (born England 10 November 1978) is a British journalist, broadcaster and novelist. Day has been a feature writer for The Observer since 2007 and has written three novels.

Early life

The daughter of a doctor,^[1] Day was born in the south of England, but raised in Northern Ireland. Interested in being a writer from the age of 7, she realised journalism was a preparation for her long-term goal, and had a column in the Derry Journal at the age of 12.^[2] Day was educated at Malvern St James Girls School in Worcestershire,^[3] and read history at Cambridge University,^[4] gaining a double-first.^[1]

Journalism

After her graduation, Day worked for the Evening Standard on the Londoners' Diary,^[5] for a year before becoming a news reporter on The Sunday Telegraph, initially on a three-month trial.^[2] While working for the Telegraph, Day won the Young Journalist of the Year Award at the British Press Awards in 2004.^[6] Dominic Lawson, then editor of The Sunday Telegraph, was quoted at the time as saying Day was "probably the most brilliant young talent that most of us have seen in twenty years".^[7] Subsequently, Day wrote for Elle and The Mail on Sunday.^[8]

Since 2007, she has been a feature writer for The Observer. In the UK Press Awards for journalism published during 2012, an event organised by the Society of Editors, Day gained a commendation in the 'Feature Writer of the Year (Broadsheet)' category.^[9][10] "The most fascinating interviewees", she commented in March 2013, "have been ... the ordinary people who have experienced extraordinary things. I did a piece on homelessness at the beginning of the year and spoke to men and women who had been living on the streets for years. I learned so much from them - about basic survival, [and] the endurance levels required."^[2]

Novels

Bloomsbury has published three novels by Day: Scissors Paper Stone (2012), Home Fires (2013) and "Paradise City" (2015). The first novel won the Betty Trask Award for first novels by authors under the age of 35. It recounts marred family relationships affected by a history of child abuse from a male lead character. Of Scissors Paper Stone, Melissa Katsoulis in The Sunday Telegraph felt that "it indicates a thoughtful and conscientious new voice in fiction."^[11] Catherine Taylor though, was less impressed.^[12]

Day felt that women's responses to the First World War had been insufficiently explored as a subject, and Home Fires combines two connected female-centred stories relating to the aftermath of that war and the more recent conflict in South Sudan,^[13] as well as the difficulties responding to the old age of loved ones.^[2] Viv Groskop, in her review for The Observer, felt that the author's "great strength is her psychological insight" and that Day's work of fiction is "a beautifully written novel whose quietly discomfiting tone stays with you for a long while afterwards."^[14]

Paradise City was published in the UK in spring 2015.^[15] Described as "an audacious, compassionate state-of-the-nation novel about four strangers whose lives collide with far-reaching consequences" it was critically well-received, with the Mail on Sunday calling it "thoughtful, humane and wonderfully observed"and the author William Boyd saying it was "an acutely observed and insightful portrait of contemporary urban life. Audacious, funny and shrewdly telling - written with tremendous confidence and brio."

Private life

Elizabeth Day married journalist Kamal Ahmed, the Business Editor of BBC News, in December 2011.^[16][17]

References

External links

• Elizabeth Day's Official website
• Elizabeth Day's contributor page, Guardian/Observer website