Elizabeth Day is an author and journalist. Her critically-acclaimed debut novel Scissors Paper Stone won a Betty Trask Award for first novels written by authors under the age of 35. Her second novel Home Fires is also published by Bloomsbury.
She is a feature writer for the Observer, where she has a wide-ranging brief to write across the paper, incorporating everything from celebrity interviews to crime reportage. Elizabeth grew up in Northern Ireland and her first job was for The Derry Journal.
Welcome to Glorious Tuga (2024) (Tuga Trilogy, book 1) Francesca Segal "If you can imagine a modern-day Jane Austen washed up on a fictional island and combine her perspicacity with the joyousness of The Durrells and the charm of Alexander McCall Smith, you would get close to the wonder of Francesca Segal's new novel. But you wouldn't capture it completely because Segal has a style and wit all of her own. Welcome To Glorious Tuga is warm, clever, thoughtful, funny, moving and brilliantly written. I relished every page and can't wait to press it into everyone's hands."
Scripted (2024) Fearne Cotton "Just like Fearne Cotton herself, Scripted is life-affirming and deeply compassionate. But it's also a cleverly conceived and funny novel which asks big questions about what it is to be the author of one's own fate."
You Are Here (2024) David Nicholls "You Are Here encompasses all of David Nicholls' characteristic warmth, humour and observational insight. But it also asks fundamental questions of life, love and loneliness in such a beautifully delicate way that you don't even realise it's happening or that the fundamental truth of human happiness has been staring you in the face all along. I don't know how he does it, but he does and he's the only person who can."
Moral Injuries (2024) Christie Watson "An exploration of moral ambiguity and what it really means to protect a life. Watson understands human flaws with empathy and insight. I've never read a novel before that combines such riveting accounts of frontline medicine, female friendship and family dynamics. Unique and compelling."
This Love (2024) Lotte Jeffs "A beautifully written, generous-hearted, clever, tender, fresh and unputdownable novel about queerness, family and forgiveness. I loved This Love."
The List of Suspicious Things (2024) Jennie Godfrey "A heartwarming tale about the power of human connection, written with empathy, warmth and care. To read it is to feel that little bit better about life."
Yellowface (2023) R F Kuang "Breathtakingly clever on jealousy, talent, success, and who gets to tell which story."
A House for Alice (2023) Diana Evans "I adored it. Her writing is exquisite: every sentence a jewel; every paragraph containing some insight that makes you draw breath with its rightness."
The Whalebone Theatre (2022) Joanna Quinn "Utterly captivating. An epic romp with characters you cannot help but fall in love with and a plot that takes you in all sorts of unexpected directions. Written with great heart, humour and humanity, it's the kind of book you want to escape normal life to read at every available opportunity."
Idol (2022) Louise O'Neill "IDOL is darkly delicious and asks important questions of fame, influence, self-help and what it really means when we click 'follow'. Louise O'Neill is one of those rare authors whose writing grips you from the first page, but who also makes you think. I will read anything she writes."
Lessons in Chemistry (2022) Bonnie Garmus "A book that sparks joy with every page. LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY is both funny and rousing: it had me laughing one minute and air-punching the next. Bonnie Garmus has created an unforgettable heroine."
Here Again Now (2022) Okechukwu Nzelu "Here Again Now is a novel of great tenderness and understanding. Okechukwu Nzelu's words feel both wise and fresh on the page."
Home Stretch (2020) Graham Norton "Full of heart and humanity and I loved every single page. What a storyteller!"
Ghosts (2020) Dolly Alderton "I love this book. It is wise, funny, tender and true, sharply-observed and utterly hilarious. Alderton's gift is always to give the mundane its beautiful due and in Ghosts, she manages to write a compulsively readable novel about modern dating that also examines the stories we tell ourselves about home, identity and gender. Like all the best writers, she wears her talent lightly, but be in no doubt: Dolly Alderton's talent is phenomenal."
Grown-Ups (2020) Marian Keyes "A novel that is warm and witty, but never afraid to tackle the big stuff."
The Confession (2019) Jessie Burton "Dazzlingly good, utterly engrossing . . . Without doubt one of the best novels of recent years."
The Doll Factory (2019) Elizabeth Macneal "An astonishingly good debut. The Doll Factory reminded me of The Crimson Petal and the White, Fingersmith and Vanity Fair but had a richness of tone that was uniquely its own. Macneal writes with utter mastery, creating a lushly intricate world peopled by living, breathing characters you can’t help but fall in love with and a plot that rattles like a speeding carriage to its thrilling conclusion. I couldn’t put it down. You won’t be able to either."
The Confessions of Frannie Langton (2019) Sara Collins "A book of heart, soul and guts...beautifully written, lushly evocative, and righteously furious. Frannie might be a 19th century character, but she is also a heroine for our times."
The Snakes (2019) Sadie Jones "The Snakes is superbly written, each sentence punctuated by a drumbeat of menace, each word placed with a master's touch. I keep thinking about the questions it poses: about what it is to be good in these imperfect times; about how we can protect our humanity in the face of narcissism and greed. Yet for all its depth and mystery, The Snakes is also just a thrillingly good read."
