How To Fail: Everything I’ve Learned From Things Going Wrong

By Elizabeth Day Fourth Estate, 352pp, £ 12.99

Start this collation of memoir, essay, celebrity interview and anthropological musing, and you may want to abandon it. After all, is being “mediocre” at tennis really failure? Did anyone genuinely feel like they fitted in at school? But as you burrow further into the questioning, self- assessing and highly self- aware mind and writings of journalist and author Elizabeth Day, you find it opens you up to thoughts and feelings you might never have been able to articulate. On the breakdown of relationships, the language used around infertility, and particularly the chapter on female anger, she is eloquent and incredibly moving. While those who have listened to the How To Fail With Elizabeth Day Podcast may find it goes over much of the same ground, there is depth and power here. It will make you consider your own perceived failures, providing a source of strength that will encourage you to be kinder to yourself – a wonderful thing. ■