Elizabeth Day

Early life

The daughter of Dr Tom Day and his wife Christine, Day was born in the south of England, but raised in Northern Ireland. Interested in being a writer from the age of seven, she realised journalism was a preparation for her long-term goal, and had a column in the Derry Journal at the age of 12. Day was educated at Malvern St James Girls School in Worcestershire, and read History at Cambridge University, gaining a double first.

Journalism

After her graduation, Day worked for the Evening Standard on the Londoners' Diary for a year before becoming a news reporter on The Sunday Telegraph, initially on a three-month trial. While working for the Telegraph, Day won the Young Journalist of the Year Award at the British Press Awards in 2004. 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". Subsequently, Day wrote for Elle and The Mail on Sunday.

From 2007 until 25 March 2016, she was 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. "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, the endurance levels required."

Novels

Bloomsbury has published three novels by Day: Scissors Paper Stone (2012), Home Fires (2013) and Paradise City (2015). The debut 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." Catherine Taylor though, was less impressed.

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, as well as the difficulties responding to the old age of loved ones. 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."

Paradise City was published in the UK in spring 2015. 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".

The Party, Day's fourth novel, was published by Fourth Estate in Summer 2017 in the UK and Little, Brown in the United States. Lucy Scholes in The Observer concludes her review noting that the book is "Brimming with betrayal, corruption and hypocrisy, The Party is a gripping page-turner".

Personal life

Day has undergone therapy: "I am totally up-front about how helpful I find it, in terms of understanding myself, seeing the world more clearly and coming to terms with grief. Going to therapy means I'm a calmer, more centred person and that I don't have to bother my friends all the time with my moaning."

Day married journalist Kamal Ahmed, the Business Editor of BBC News, in December 2011. The couple separated in February 2015, and are now divorced.