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Failosophy

A Handbook For When Things Go Wrong

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Failosophy

By: Elizabeth Day
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About this listen

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of How to Fail and Magpie

‘Elizabeth Day has revolutionised the way we see failure’ Stylist

‘A beautiful timely and humane book’ Alain de Botton

‘Most failures can teach us something meaningful about ourselves if we choose to listen'

In Failosophy Elizabeth Day brings together all the lessons she has learned, from conversations with the guests on her award-winning How to Fail podcast, from stories shared with her by readers and listeners, and from her own life, and distils them into seven principles of failure.

Practical, reassuring and inspirational, these principles offer a guide through life’s rough patches. From failed exams to romantic break-ups, from career setbacks to confidence crises, from navigating anxiety to surviving loss, Failosophy recognises, and celebrates, the fact that failure connects us all. It is what makes us human.

With insights from Malcolm Gladwell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Lemn Sissay, Frankie Bridge, Nigel Slater, Emeli Sande, Alain de Botton, Mabel, Fearne Cotton, Meera Syal, Dame Kelly Holmes, Andrew Scott and many, many more, Failosophy is the essential handbook for turning failure into success.

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Critic reviews

‘A beautiful timely and humane book. If there's one philosophy the world needs more of right now, it's Failosophy’ Alain de Botton

‘A pragmatic and pocket-sized guide to failure – how to cope with it and what to learn from it … a must read’ Glamour

‘The timing of this guide couldn’t be better - as we’ve navigated all of the stresses that come with the pandemic – and Day’s advice is both practical and reassuring. It really is okay to fail’ Evening Standard

'Witty and likeable … thoughtful and probing' Guardian

Praise for How to Fail:

‘A book full of wisdom, humour, humility, tenderness and heart. Elizabeth Day’s beautiful, reassuring stories and observations are a guide to self-compassion, a celebration of all things imperfect and will galvanise you to try, try again’ Dolly Alderton, author of Everything I Know About Love

'How To Fail has rapidly become my essential companion in this over-competitive, demanding world. By turns profound, witty, and extremely reassuring, Elizabeth Day's sublime deconstruction of the myth of 'success' – and the journey to find our own markers of contentment – is a life-changing gift to us all.' Jessie Burton, author of The Muse

'Brilliant Elizabeth Day, who you could probably trust to talk eloquently about anything' Evening Standard

'Brilliant … Covering everything from job rejections to failed IVF attempts, this podcast will make you feel better about life when things aren’t going to plan’ Harper's Bazaar

'Funny and insightful' Grazia

'It’s really quite special' Red

'Whip-smart celebrations of things going, well, wrong' Emerald Street

'Listening to this show is cathartic; failure is a constant experience shared by so many, and being open is not a bad thing’ BuzzFeed

‘Tender and insightful, as well as acerbically funny’ Reader’s Digest

All stars
Most relevant
worth a listen. lots of anedotes and its short and easy to listen to. I enjoyed it.

short and good points

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And all so true. The rhetoric that we must all succeed at everything, all the time, is exhausting! If we don’t start to move the needle to, accept and acknowledge that failure is the most important thing then how will you ever learn and the next generation will have an impossible mountain to climb. Elizabeth Day has produced an amazing book that should be on every schools curriculum..

Enlightening read…..

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As someone who is self critical and constantly worries this is a light hearted but meaningful book talking about the topic we brits hate.

I took away a lot of messages and just listening to the audio book helped me reassure my perfectionism.

Highly recommend

Anyone who fears failure needs to read

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Fantastic book read by the amazing Elizabeth Day herself. Thought provoking, reassuring, consoling and giving hope - this book is like a good friend we all wish to have by our side when things are not going our way. Helps reframe our fear of failure into a positive data acquisition.

Great just like the podcast!

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It's such a shame that people keep writing books based on their own personal experience and profess to be an expert on big psychological topics. The broad idea of the book is ok and the idea that failing isn't always a bad thing is something that we can all agree on. But this book is so predictable and boring. It only really scratches the surface. And although she mentions amazing people like Brene Brown, it really is just a couple of hours of chat. There is so much psychological research underpinning the ideas in this which could be brought out by someone much better versed in it. I would save your money for Brene Brown's books personally.

It's probably also mentioning a trigger warnings around miscarriage and suicide as these are discussed in detail and could be difficult for others.

Predictable, boring and lacking scientific backing

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