Published in 2023
10 hrs and 16 mins
Elizabeth Day is an author, journalist and broadcaster.
Her memoir, How To Fail: Everything I’ve Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong is a Sunday Times top 5 bestseller and has been described as ‘life-changing’ by critics. Her debut novel Scissors, Paper, Stone won a Betty Trask Award. Her follow-up, Home Fires was an Observer Book of the Year. Her third, Paradise City was named one of the best novels of 2015 in the Observer and the Evening Standard, and was People magazine’s Book of the Week. Her fourth novel, The Party was an Amazon bestseller and a Richard and Judy Summer Book Club pick. It has been optioned for television.
Her chart-topping podcast, How To Fail With Elizabeth Day, is a celebration of the things that haven’t gone right and won the Rising Star Award at the 2019 British Podcast Awards.
Elizabeth is a columnist for You magazine on the Mail on Sunday and a feature writer for numerous publications in the UK and US including The Telegraph, The Times, the Guardian, New York Magazine, the Observer, Vogue, Grazia and Elle. She is a contributing editor for Harper’s Bazaar.
Elizabeth grew up in Northern Ireland and her first job was for The Derry Journal. 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 a ginger cat called Huxley who approves this message.
What is this book about?
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 listen to, to become a better friend to yourself.
