Elizabeth Day

Background

The daughter of Doctor Tom Day and his wife Christine, Day was born in the south of England, but raised in Northern Ireland.

Education

Day was educated at Malvern Street James Girls School in Worcestershire, and read history at Cambridge University, gaining a double-first.

Career

Day has been a feature writer for The Observer since 2007 and has written three novels. Interested in being a writer from the age of 7, she realised journalism was a preparation for her long-term goal, and had a column in the Derry Journal at the age of 12. 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.

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 United Kingdom 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."

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. The couple separated in 2015.

Achievements

• While working for the Telegraph, Day won the Young Journalist of the Year Award at the British Press Awards in 2004.

Connections

Friend:

Kamal Ahmed