Elizabeth Day Keynote Speaker

Elizabeth Day is a bestselling author, acclaimed broadcaster and leading voice on how we grow through failure. A graduate of Queens’ College, Cambridge (2001), she reported for The Observer (2007–2016) before becoming a columnist for The Mail on Sunday and a contributor to The Guardian. Her narrative flair and psychological insight have earned her the Betty Trask Award and an international readership.

Day’s cultural phenomenon How to Fail (2018–present) has been downloaded more than 40 million times and welcomed guests including Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Malcolm Gladwell, Stanley Tucci, Gloria Steinem and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The show won the Rising Star Award at the 2019 British Podcast Awards, featured on BBC America’s “Most Buzzworthy Podcasts” list, and has been spotlighted on programmes such as The Russell Howard Hour and The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show. A 2019/20 live tour played sell-out dates from the London Palladium to the Lowry. In 2020 Harper’s Bazaar named Day a Woman of the Year for “bringing solace to the nation with her sensitivity and wit.”

Her Sunday Times top-five bestseller How to Fail (2019) and its companion Failosophy (2020) translate podcast insights into a practical manifesto; philosopher Alain de Botton hailed them as “beautiful, timely and humane.” She has since topped the charts with Magpie (2021) and the memoir-manifesto Friendaholic (2023). Her fiction catalogue spans acclaimed novels, while her second hit podcast, Best Friend Therapy (2022–present), demystifies everyday mental-health challenges alongside psychotherapist Emma Reed-Turrell.

In 2025, Day is set to release her latest novel, One of Us, a compelling story of betrayal, old bonds and buried scandals, acquired in a two-book deal by Fourth Estate. She continues to engage audiences with her How to Fail Live tour, including a scheduled event at the Barbican Centre in March 2025.

On stage, Day blends journalistic rigour with disarming candour, equipping audiences with frameworks for resilience, relationship-building and authentic influence. Whether guiding C-suite strategy sessions or inspiring student assemblies, she shows how reframing failure unlocks creativity and drives innovation. Her sessions leave participants energised, empathetic and ready to turn setbacks into springboards.