Elizabeth Day

Hoewel Marisa Jake pas enkele maanden kent, is ze ervan overtuigd dat hij de ware is. Als hij haar vraagt bij hem in te trekken en samen een gezin te stichten, weet ze dan ook zeker dat ze eindelijk de vastigheid heeft gevonden waarnaar ze haar leven lang heeft gezocht. Maar wanneer ze een kamer van hun huis verhuren, komt hun relatie onder druk te staan. Kate, de huurster, heeft weinig respect voor persoonlijke ruimte, is meer dan gemiddeld geïnteresseerd in Jake en vreemd genoeg ook in hun plannen voor gezinsuitbreiding. Waarom is ze zo geïnteresseerd – geobsedeerd zelfs? En, verontrustender, waarom deelt Jake Marisa’s zorgen hierover niet? In haar vastberadenheid antwoorden te vinden op deze vragen, dreigt Marisa alles te verliezen wat haar dierbaar is... De huisgenoot is een spannende, verrassende en schitterend geschreven roman over moederschap, jaloezie, en over hoever je gaat om te krijgen wat je wilt.

Ein Glück, wenn's schiefläuftEgal ob die Schwierigkeit, mit 40 eine neue Sportart zu erlernen, eine unerwartete Trennung oder das plötzliche Karriereaus – die wirklich großen Momente unseres Lebens erwachsen immer aus einer Krise, so die These der erfolgreichen englischen Journalistin und Autorin Elizabeth »Zu scheitern hat mir in vielerlei Hinsicht die Augen geöffnet. Ich habe mehr aus meinen Krisen gelernt als aus den guten Zeiten.« Ermutigend, inspirierend und mit vielen Beispielen aus ihrem Leben zeigt Elizabeth, dass wir uns nicht länger über unsere vermeintlichen Misserfolge definieren sollten. Denn wenn wir verstehen, warum wir etwas nicht geschafft haben, gewinnen wir an Stärke. Es ist an der Zeit, das Streben nach Perfektion endlich abzulegen, das so viele Frauen heutzutage Lasst uns aus unseren Fehlern lernen, stark, gelassen und glücklich sein – nicht Angst vorm Leben haben!

Martin, un chico de clase media, accede, gracias a una beca de estudios, a una prestigiosa escuela británica. Es un estudiante brillante, pero siente que no encaja. Cuando conoce al joven aristócrata Ben Fitzmaurice, las puertas de un mundo exclusivo se abren para él. Ambos forjan una estrecha amistad a lo largo de los años, una amistad leal, de confidencias y secretos. Sin embargo, algo cambia el día de la fiesta del cuadragésimo cumpleaños de Ben. Entre copas de champán y el glamur de la alta sociedad londinense, Martin vuelve a sentirse fuera de lugar y percibe cierta tirantez en su mejor amigo. Pero Ben nunca haría nada que estropease su sagrada amistad. ¿O sí?

In Failosophy: a handbook for when things go wrong, Elizabeth Day, author of How to Fail, and creator of the award-winning podcast, brings together all the lessons she has learned from her own life, from conversations with her podcast guests – including Malcolm Gladwell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Lemn Sissay, Nigel Slater, Emeli Sande, Meera Syal, Dame Kelly Holmes, Andrew Scott and many, many more – and from meeting readers and listeners who have shared their stories with her. She has distilled all this precious material into seven key principles of failure: 1. Failure just is 2. You are not your worst thoughts. 3. Almost everyone feels they’ve failed at their 20s. 4. Break-ups are not a tragedy 5. Failure is data acquisition 6. There is no such thing as a future you 7. Being open about your vulnerabilities is the ultimate act of strength Practical, inspirational and with carefully selected quotes from the podcast guests, who have insights into everything from failed exams, romantic break-ups and how to cope with severe anxiety, Failosophy is the essential guide for turning our failures into our successes, and the equivalent of having a chat with a good friend who wants to make you feel better.

Listening time: 10 hours and 16 minutes. As a society, there is a tendency to elevate romantic love. But what about friendships? Aren't they just as – if not more – important? So why is it hard to find the right words to express what these uniquely complex bonds mean to us? In Friendaholic: Confessions of a Friendship Addict, Elizabeth Day embarks on a journey to answer these questions.Growing up, Elizabeth wanted to make everyone like her. Lacking friends at school, she grew up to believe that quantity equalled quality. Having lots of friends meant you were loved, popular and safe. She was determined to become a Good Friend. And, in many ways, she did. But in adulthood she slowly realised that it was often to the detriment of her own boundaries and mental health.Then, when a global pandemic hit in 2020, she was one of many who were forced to reassess what friendship really meant to them – with the crisis came a dawning realisation: her truest friends were not always the ones she had been spending most time with. Why was this? Could she rebalance it? Was there such thing as…too many friends? And was she really the friend she thought she was?Friendaholic unpacks the significance and evolution of friendship. From exploring her own personal friendships and the distinct importance of each of them in her life, to the unique and powerful insights of others across the globe, Elizabeth asks why there isn’t yet a language that can express its crucial influence on our world.From ghosting and frenemies to social media and seismic life events, Elizabeth leaves no stone unturned. Friendaholic is the book you buy for the people you love but it's also the book you read to become a better friend to yourself.

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BEST SELLING AUTHOR OF HOW TO FAIL‘Bravely revealing.’ Bernardine Evaristo‘Funny, moving, helpful and true, Friendaholic deserves a massive audience.’ Sathnam Sanghera‘This book is brilliant.’ Jo Elvin‘Essential reading… admirably candid and well-crafted’ The Guardian As a society, there is a tendency to elevate romantic love. But what about friendships? Aren't they just as – if not more – important? So why is it hard to find the right words to express what these uniquely complex bonds mean to us? In Confessions of a Friendship Addict, Elizabeth Day embarks on a journey to answer these questions.Growing up, Elizabeth wanted to make everyone like her. Lacking friends at school, she grew up to believe that quantity equalled quality. Having lots of friends meant you were loved, popular and safe. She was determined to become a Good Friend. And, in many ways, she did. But in adulthood she slowly realised that it was often to the detriment of her own boundaries and mental health.Then, when a global pandemic hit in 2020, she was one of many who were forced to reassess what friendship really meant to them – with the crisis came a dawning her truest friends were not always the ones she had been spending most time with. Why was this? Could she rebalance it? Was there such thing as…too many friends? And was she really the friend she thought she was?Friendaholic unpacks the significance and evolution of friendship. From exploring her own personal friendships and the distinct importance of each of them in her life, to the unique and powerful insights of others across the globe, Elizabeth asks why there isn’t yet a language that can express its crucial influence on our world.From ghosting and frenemies to social media and seismic life events, Elizabeth leaves no stone unturned. Friendaholic is the book you buy for the people you love but it's also the book you read to become a better friend to yourself.

Het feest is een ontluisterende roman over obsessie, verraad, privilege en hypocrisie in het hart van het Britse establishment, voor de fans van Brideshead Revisited en De verborgen geschiedenis. Martin is al vijfentwintig jaar bevriend met Ben, vanaf het moment dat ze samen op Burtonbury School zaten. Ze vormen een vreemde combinatie: Martin is een jongen uit een arbeidersgezin met de verkeerde kleding en het verkeerde accent, en Ben is een populaire, welgestelde aristocraat. Ben is als een broer die Martin nooit had. Martin doet alles voor hem en kent zijn grootste geheim. Bens veertigste verjaardagsfeest blijkt een kantelpunt. Te midden van de Britse elite beseft Martin opnieuw dat hij er niet bij hoort en hij voelt dat er onheil in de lucht hangt. Maar Ben zou nooit iets doen wat hun vriendschap op het spel zou zetten. Toch?

Max Weston, twenty-one and a newly commissioned lance corporal, leaves home for his first posting in central Africa. Fiercely patriotic and a natural leader, he is eager to make a difference. He never comes back. His parents, Caroline and Andrew, are devastated by the death of their only child. Their grief threatens to overwhelm their marriage until the empty space between them is filled by the arrival of Andrew's ninety-eight-year-old mother, Elsa. Always elegant, cutting and critical of Caroline, the old woman is now disabled and disoriented. As she lies in the spare room, the past unspools in Elsa's mind, loosening fragments of her anxious childhood with her mercurial father, who returned from the Great War a changed man. Under one roof, the Westons come to understand each other in new ways, and the domestic stories of multiple generations coalesce into a potent exploration of the legacies of war and love.

Inspired by her hugely popular podcast, How To Fail is Elizabeth Day’s brilliantly funny, painfully honest and insightful celebration of things going wrong. This is a book for anyone who has ever failed. Which means it’s a book for everyone. If I have learned one thing from this shockingly beautiful venture called life, it is this: failure has taught me lessons I would never otherwise have understood. I have evolved more as a result of things going wrong than when everything seemed to be going right. Out of crisis has come clarity, and sometimes even catharsis. Part memoir, part manifesto, and including chapters on dating, work, sport, babies, families, anger and friendship, it is based on the simple premise that understanding why we fail ultimately makes us stronger. It's a book about learning from our mistakes and about not being afraid. Uplifting, inspiring and rich in stories from Elizabeth’s own life, How to Fail reveals that failure is not what defines us; rather it is how we respond to it that shapes us as individuals. Because learning how to fail is actually learning how to succeed better. And everyone needs a bit of that.

Listening time: 10 hours and 2 minutes. Inspired by her hugely popular podcast, How To Fail, is Elizabeth Day’s brilliantly funny, painfully honest and insightful celebration of things going wrong. This is an audiobook for anyone who has ever failed. Which means it’s an audiobook for everyone. If I have learned one thing from this shockingly beautiful venture called life, it is this: failure has taught me lessons I would never otherwise have understood. I have evolved more as a result of things going wrong than when everything seemed to be going right. Out of crisis has come clarity, and sometimes even catharsis. Part memoir, part manifesto, and including chapters on dating, work, sport, babies, families, anger and friendship, it is based on the simple premise that understanding why we fail ultimately makes us stronger. It’s an audiobook about learning from our mistakes and about not being afraid. Uplifting, inspiring and rich in stories from Elizabeth’s own life, How to Fail reveals that failure is not what defines us; rather it is how we respond to it that shapes us as individuals. Because learning how to fail is actually learning how to succeed better. And everyone needs a bit of that.

Burtonbury, un ex collegio maschile per i figli dei diplomatici, è una scuola privata con una discreta reputazione e la vana ambizione di poter essere un giorno all’altezza di Eton o di Harrow. Quando vi mette piede per la prima volta, dopo aver vinto una borsa di studio, Martin Gilmour è un ragazzo con i maglioni scoloriti, i calzoncini per la ginnastica mai abbastanza bianchi e le camicie con macchie gialle indelebili. L’odore della tristezza di sua madre, rimasta prematuramente vedova, aleggia tra i suoi vestiti. Un giorno, però, alla Burtonbury School, il suo destino di adolescente imbronciato, con una costante sensazione di disagio e l’accento sbagliato, muta radicalmente. Martin incontra Ben Fitzmaurice, un ragazzo ricco, bello, ammirato da tutti, e ne diventa amico. Partite di tennis, cacce all’uovo tra prati curatissimi e aiuole sontuosamente fiorite, la tenuta dei Fitzmaurice spalanca le sue porte al giovane Gilmour. Ben diventa il fratello mai avuto, l’anima gemella da venerare, la ragione di vita da proteggere e custodire. Al punto che Martin si trasforma nella sua piccola ombra. Una piccola ombra capace di salvare l’amico dalle incresciose conseguenze della sua condotta, cosí sconsiderata e tipica di chi è stato troppo favorito dalla sorte. Durante i successivi venticinque anni, Martin serba nel suo cuore «il segreto» di quell’amicizia, un segreto che, piú di un patto di sangue, lo lega indissolubilmente al rampollo dei Fitzmaurice, come soltanto un debito impagabile, una gratitudine eterna possono fare. Quando Ben organizza un party per il suo quarantesimo compleanno in un edificio del diciassettesimo secolo acquistato insieme con la moglie Serena, Martin, divenuto un noto, disincantato critico d’arte, e sua moglie Lucy, una donna perfettamente consapevole di essere sempre seconda, nella scala degli affetti del marito, alla sacra amicizia con Ben, si mescolano volentieri alla variopinta folla di invitati: politici, celebrità, vecchi e nuovi ricchi col volto lucido e ritoccato ed energiche strette di mano. La sensazione di un inusuale, sgradevole impaccio nell’accoglienza che Ben gli riserva, si fa, tuttavia, subito strada nella mente di Martin. Gesti, parole, apprezzamenti di Fitzmaurice rivelano una strana inquietudine. Che la gratitudine che l’amico gli deve non sia eterna? Che «il segreto» custodito cosí a lungo sia stato del tutto inutile? Che, soprattutto, quell’amicizia, che per Martin è la sua unica ragione di vita, stia inaspettatamente per finire? Accolto al suo apparire in Inghilterra da uno strepitoso successo di pubblico e di critica, Il party è uno dei piú riusciti romanzi sul lato oscuro e morboso delle relazioni umane, oltre che una magistrale descrizione del cinismo, della fatuità e dell’impudicizia con cui il privilegio e il potere si offrono oggi allo sguardo.

Fiction/Inspirational 2014 National Indie Excellence Book Award Finalist Let's begin at the end. The final words from Ophelia, the "I sometimes wonder if I did it on purpose, if I consciously broke everything in my life that was working. And if so, if I had known how it would feel to have my husband unable to look at me, if I had realized my daughter and I would go months without speaking, and if I had understood the extent of the destruction I would bring to the life we had built, would I have still done it? Would I have still made that single decision that became the turning point in our lives? "I still wonder. Had I not created that catalyst that landed me in the grip of despair, would I have been able to hear Gusto telling me, “The suffering needs to end”? Or would the suffering have remained as silent as his voice had become? "For now, I’ll do as Gusto once asked me to do when the answers were mine to create. I’ll let the questions roll on the backs of waves until the ocean of time turns them into something I want to reach out to and pull to me, until clarity surfaces and I want nothing less than to embrace it like the sweetness of a mango. "For now, I have the one answer that matters. I know who I am. I am Ophelia."

Marisa and Jake are a perfect couple, and Kate, their new lodger, is the perfect roommate--and not just because her rent payments will give them the income they need to start trying for a baby. Except no one is perfect. Sure, Kate doesn’t seem to care much about personal boundaries and can occasionally seem overly familiar with Jake, but Marisa doesn’t let it concern her. Kate will soon be gone, and it will just be her, Jake, and their future baby. Conceiving a baby is easier said than done, though, and Jake and Marisa’s perfect relationship is put to the test through months of fertility treatments and false starts. To make matters worse, Kate’s boundary-pushing turns into an all-out obsession--with Jake, with Marisa, and with their future child. Who is this woman? Why does she seem to know everything about Marisa and Jake? In her quest to find out who Kate really is, Marisa might destroy everything she’s worked so hard to create: her perfect romance, her perfect family, and her perfect self. Jake doesn’t know the half of what Marisa has created and what she stands to lose. Magpie is a tense and twisting novel about mothers and children, envy and possession, and the dangers of getting everything you’ve ever dreamed of.

In the inner circle, where can you hide a secret? In this compulsive story of betrayal, old bonds and buried scandals, one British establishment family comes face to face with the consequences of privilege and the true cost of power. Martin and Ben were friends for decades — best friends, Martin would have said — before the terrible events at Ben’s 40th birthday party tore them apart. So when Martin receives a surprise invitation back into the inner sanctum of the dazzling Fitzmaurice family after seven years of silence, he can’t resist the chance to get his revenge. Ben has risen through the ranks of power, and is now touted as the next Prime Minister. But Martin can’t help but notice certain flies in the ointment… Ben’s wife, Serena, for instance, whose privileged existence is beginning to feel like a gilded cage. Or their daughter, Cosima, an environmental activist fighting against everything her parents once stood for. Or the disgraced MP Richard Take, determined to make his big comeback. And then there’s Fliss, the Fitzmaurice black sheep, whose untimely death sparks more suspicion than closure. Through their intertwined stories, we see a family — and a nation — unravelling under the weight of its secrets. With everyone watching, the stage is set for a reckoning. It's time for Martin and Ben to confront what love truly means when everything — family, power, and loyalty — is on the line.

A novel that seeks to answer big questions—of love and death, ambition and failure, responsibility and guilt—with a rich cast of characters from every strata of society. Four disparate characters find themselves linked together in Paradise City. Howard Pink is a wildly successful businessman still struggling to cope fifteen years after his nineteen-year-old daughter disappeared. Beatrice Kizza fled persecution from Uganda where homosexuality is illegal. She now works as a maid at a hotel Howard frequents. Esme Reade, an ambitious staff reporter on a Sunday tabloid, is desperate to get the Howard Pink interview for which all London reporters froth at the mouths. Carol Hetherington, a widow who has time to keep an eye on her neighbors’ actions, makes an astonishing discovery. Paradise City explores what a city means to those who come seeking their fortune or a better life. It is also a story of absence and loss, of how we shape ourselves around the spaces that people leave behind.

Howard Pink is een selfmade miljonair die zijn leven koopt en gewend is aan macht en geld. Maar achter dit flinterdunne masker schuilt een man die gebukt gaat onder de verdwijning van zijn dochter jaren geleden. Wanneer hij een onvergeeflijke daad begaat, raken de levens van hem, zijn jonge slachtoffer, een ambitieuze journaliste en een oudere dame voor altijd met elkaar verstrengeld op een manier die geen van allen ooit had kunnen vermoeden. Net als in Het feest heeft Elizabeth Day met Schaduwstad een plotgedreven roman geschreven over de kloof tussen de Britse klassen, tussen rijk en arm, tussen hen voor wie deuren zich openen en anderen die met moeite overleven. Met haarscherpe pen zet ze haar personages neer en snijdt ze ongemakkelijke thema’s aan.

A gripping story of obsession and betrayal, privilege and hypocrisy, set in the unassailable heart of the British establishment. As the train pressed on, I realised that my life was in the process of taking a different direction, plotted according to a new constellation. Because, although I didn't know it yet, I was about to meet Ben and nothing would ever be the same again. Martin Gilmour is an outsider. When he wins a scholarship to Burtonbury School, he doesn't wear the right clothes or speak with the right kind of accent. But then he meets the dazzling, popular and wealthy Ben Fitzmaurice, and gains admission to an exclusive world. Soon Martin is enjoying tennis parties and Easter egg hunts at the Fitzmaurice family's estate, as Ben becomes the brother he never had. But Martin has a secret. He knows something about Ben, something he will never tell. It is a secret that will bind the two of them together for the best part of 25 years. At Ben's 40th birthday party, the great and the good of British society are gathering to celebrate in a haze of champagne, drugs and glamour. Amid the hundreds of guests—the politicians, the celebrities, the old-money and newly rich—Martin once again feels that disturbing pang of not-quite belonging. His wife, Lucy, has her reservations too. There is disquiet in the air. But Ben wouldn't do anything to damage their friendship. Would he?