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Elizabeth Day
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How to Fail Hardcover – April 4, 2019

by Elizabeth Day (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,231 ratings
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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.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    272 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Fourth Estate
  4. Publication date
    April 4, 2019
  5. Dimensions
    5.55 x 1.3 x 8.74 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0008327327
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0008327323
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fourth Estate (April 4, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0008327327
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008327323
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.01 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.55 x 1.3 x 8.74 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,231 ratings

About the author

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Elizabeth Day

Elizabeth Day

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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.

@elizabday

www.elizabethdayonline.co.uk

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
2,231 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Anna
5.0 out of 5 stars Shared experience of not to be afraid to start over
Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2019
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I really like the language this book is written. I also like that personally, I can relate to many things, described by the author. I guess I needed to find some justification to my life experiences and this book graciously provided that ;)
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Steph Warren
4.0 out of 5 stars A simple concept entertainingly explained
Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2019
*I received a free ARC of this novel, with thanks to Harper Collins UK and NetGalley. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*

How to Fail draws together various interviews and opinions from the How to Fail with Elizabeth Day podcast series.

The book is split into short essay segments such as ‘How to Fail at Dating’ or ‘How to Fail at Work’, neatly drawing together snippets from different interviews around individual themes. All of the interviews feature people who have achieved career success, such as celebrities, authors, actors, talking about times in their life where they feel they failed and what those failures taught them.

The initial chapters of the book have a warm, anecdotal tone, but as she warms up Day gradually slides into a more academic style, presenting coherent and well-constructed arguments on topical issues such as the #MeToo phenomenon and modern gender politics. This gives the book a mixed tone: part memoir, part thesis, which I found worked really well with the subject matter.

My only criticism here would be that the concept of the book and the podcasts is a simple one: finding the positive in failure; what can it teach us; which different path can it lead us down; how can we grow and improve from it. This works really well in podcast format as you get the personal experiences and anecdotes, insights and emotions directly ‘from the horse’s mouth’. In a book, I found that it began to feel a little bit repetitious, as this concept was applied in turn to each separate aspect of the author and interviewees lives.

Still, the content and tone of the book were engaging enough to carry me through and I came out of the book thoroughly convinced of the principle and eager to apply it to my own outlook on life. So for me, this book on failure would definitely be classed a success!

This is a book for anyone who has ever failed. Which means it’s a book for everyone. I don’t have all the answers (and it’s entirely possible I have none of them) but if you turn the final page having in some small way recognised yourself and felt less alone, then that makes me happy. That means this book about failure is not, in itself, a failure.
Does that mean I’ve failed to write it properly.
I hope not.

– Elizabeth Day, How To Fail

Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog
5 people found this helpful
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Steph B
5.0 out of 5 stars Good Purchase!
Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2019
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Really interesting read
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L Morrison
5.0 out of 5 stars An absolute gem
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2019
I found Elizabeth Day via her podcast (How to Fail) and enjoyed her insights and interviewing style so thought I’d follow up and get the audiobook as I’m often out and about and don’t get time to sit still and read. I thought it would be a collection of her podcast guests, a mashup of points and illustrations from other people but it isn’t. It is a raw, painful, poignant, funny, wistful account of her life, and where she’s failed. Despite it being an account from a white, middle class, successful, British woman with many privileges, it is a book for everyone. It goes deep. Deep into the ache we all feel in trying to work out how to truly connect with others, sometimes meeting them disappointingly in the shallows, other times uncovering their brittleness or exposing our naivety or immaturity in the face of their kindness. It is a PEARL of a book, not just because it reminds us that we all have a fundamental need to love and be loved, despite our layers of status/occupation etc, but because it doesn’t fall victim to the saccharine sweetness of positivity and light and affirmations and gratitude. Day lets failure sit as failure, not resorting to the tiresome gymnastics of trying to find a silver lining in every event or working hard to never repeat it. Sometimes failure is just that. Failure. And that’s okay. She strikes a perfect balance in tone and insight, never falling hard into cynicism or bitterness or optimism and rainbows. I LOVED the audiobook, if not just for her classically British accent, but for the passion and tenderness she brings to her accounts of her failures through life. I found a lot of hope in this book at a time when I really need it. It didn’t give me a plan to follow or steps to take to get through or over my own failures. Day doesn’t coach her readers through the book. Rather, she reflects openly, tracing themes that recurr in her life, causing me to do the same. She brings out universal truths of loss, heartache, longing, brokenness, love, shame and friendship. It’s not a book that somehow makes you feel better because her life is ‘tough’ in parts, thereby making you feel grateful for your own, it is a book that gently leads you through the mess and imparts an enormous amount of strength. It’s the gentleness that is the strength here. She gently leads the reader through her failures, without shying away from the harsh and painful truth of the actions and consequences. I am clearer and more hopeful after reading it. Clearer that some of the things I worry about are not just issues that bother me, they bother everyone. And hopeful because I too work my way out of failure. Thank you Elizabeth Day.
4 people found this helpful
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Kate
2.0 out of 5 stars A lot of first person accounts and stories.
Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2020
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I found it self indulgent. Idk. I guess I was expecting something a bit more open on the subject matters.

Didn’t know it was a memoir.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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NAGARAJAH Vasantha
5.0 out of 5 stars Bon état
Reviewed in France on July 2, 2022
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livre neuf
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Boglarka Kertesz-Farkas
5.0 out of 5 stars Love life and love yourself better
Reviewed in Germany on March 26, 2021
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Everybody who still believes that perfection is our ultimate goal to reach in life shall read this brilliant book. It is a comforting discovery to acknowledge in the end that being who we really are is perfectly enough to have a life of fullness and contentment.
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sudipta das1
4.0 out of 5 stars Better expectation
Reviewed in India on March 5, 2020
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Expected better
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Dr Annie Hickox
5.0 out of 5 stars An incredibly valuable book that could actually change your life, or at least how you look at it.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 20, 2019
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Like many who buy this book, I had already become hooked on Day's podcast, also called How to Fail. I was interested not just in the stories of those whom she interviewed, asking them to list three failures in their own lives, but I also found myself captivated by Day's own story. In particular, her honesty, warmth, and startling intelligence made me want to hear more about her. I have always admired her writing (novels and journalism) and to at last be able to hear her personal story felt like I'd mined into something very deep and rich.
This book lived up to what I admit were quite high expectations. She takes us through stages of her life, from childhood to her 40th year, often relating her experiences with searing pain, humility, and humour. In my role as a clinical psychologist, I often meet young adults who struggle to 'succeed' and I have recommended this book to several people as a useful adjunct to therapy. Viewing success as a monolithic goal, whether it is achievement, weight, marriage, money and/or status, tends to result in a fragile and quite lonely structure, if it is does not include the ballast of happiness and fulfilment. This kind of success often draws us away from our true friends, and can lead us to feel we are living a life that is not truly our own.
This book describes with candour the decline and fall that can follow the initial highs and rewards of success. It provides the reader with a sense that the author has been there before, and we are not alone. It helps us recognise that what we thought was success may in fact be a mirage. Day shows that meaningful relationships, being true to ourselves, and making mistakes may provide a more fulfilling path to where we eventually want to be.
I know I will refer to the book's penultimate chapter again and again, as it deals with how we, as women, often fail at anger by bending far too easily (and often unknowingly) to please others. By overlooking and ignoring our own needs, we may even fail at success. Thankfully, the author has managed to make this book about failure a success in her own right. She has succeeded in making lemonade from the lemons that life has given her, and her readers will be grateful for this.
30 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable
Reviewed in Australia on August 13, 2021
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This was funny, honest, and relatable in a lot of ways.Really enjoyed reading it and I love the podcast too
One person found this helpful
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