‘I Liked Letting Go’: Elizabeth Day On ITV’s Adaptation Of The Party & Her Favourite Places To Read
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4 hours ago
The author-slash-podcaster discusses handing over the baton and finding inspiration in our surroundings
Elizabeth Day is ridiculously nice.
I know this because she agreed to be interviewed by me when I was nothing more than a student, writing an article for my journalism Master’s, and uploading to a website with three readers. And to top all that niceness off, she’s somehow remembered me over a year on.
Where we once gossiped about heartbreak, today we’re here to talk about books. Or rather, the new adaptation of her book The Party (2017), out on ITV tonight (11 October).
‘I’m feeling so excited about it,’ Day says, iconic bob bouncing all abuzz. ‘It’s also that surreal feeling, like when you’re a kid and you still believe in Father Christmas: I can’t get my head around the fact that it’s actually happening. It’s such a stellar cast and crew.’ Having now binged the first episode four times, she can’t wait to share it with the world.
The novel and new show centres around Martin (played by Luke Evans), a working class boy who wins a scholarship to an elite boarding school. Here, he meets Ben Fitzmaurice (Tom Cullen) – Ben gives Martin a sense of belonging, and in turn Martin stands by Ben even in his darkest moments. Three decades on, Martin now a journalist and Ben a politician, are reunited at Ben’s birthday. News of the Conservative leader’s resignation tempts Ben; Martin, keeper of Ben’s darkest secrets, fears the publicity. But then, a shocking event occurs at the party. The police are called, and a scandal-making investigation into their past unfolds.
Fellow Welshman Tom Cullen stars as Martin’s wealthy best friend Ben Fitzmaurice. (© World Productions)
Traditionally, authors hate handing over their babies to screenwriters, but Day couldn’t be gladder. ‘I don’t know if I’m weird, but I really liked letting go,’ she admits. Having written The Party (2017) more than 10 years ago, she felt enough time had passed. ‘I love writing books, but a TV programme is a completely different set of metrics and a completely different skill. I wanted to hand it over and see how it evolved.’
Without the inner monologue, the dialogue has to do more work. And with five hours of screen time to kill, existing characters had to be deepened and new plotlines developed. ‘Sarah Solemani has done a terrific job of all that,’ she says, ‘and of bringing it bang up to date.’ Her praise of the cast and crew is equally lavish. Though she didn’t want a writer credit, she was brought on as an executive producer (and after some begging on her part, a supporting artist).
Luke Evans stars in ITV’s The Party this autumn, based on Elizabeth Day’s novel of the same name.
With The Party now out in the world and its sequel novel, One Of Us (2026), on shelves, she’s back in the inter-book period. Though she is, she teases, working on her new novel, her superstition restrains her from sharing more. ‘I’m also in that horrendous phase of thinking it’s awful and I’m the worst writer ever,’ she bemoans. ‘I go through that with every book, but I forget that I do, and every time it feels uniquely shameful. It’s also very important for me as a writer to take in influences from the culture, so I’m watching a lot of TV and reading a lot of books.’
As for where she’s reading, her latest campaign should give you a clue. Having teamed up with Diet Coke alongside BookTok’s Jack Edwards, the pair have launched BookMarks – an interactive map helping readers find reading spots across the UK and Ireland based on genre and mood. ‘Reading is integral to my inspiration as a writer,’ says Days, ‘and where you read can really shift your experience of escaping into a book, so that all feeds into my creativity.’
Day’s go-to spot? Vauxhall Park. ‘I love Vauxhall. I’m biased, because I live here, but it’s a really historic part of London.’ Vauxhall, she says, will always remind her of William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, its class politics and social satire playing out amongst the Pleasure Gardens. ‘Vauxhall Park isn’t quite the same place, but it’s close. I can walk out of my door to the park and sit on a bench surrounded by lovely lavender beds and people coming and going. On weekday mornings there’s often a tai chi group practising.’
In a world where we’re constantly jumping from one thing to the next, catching snippets of our current read on the Tube or in bed, Day celebrates making an occasion of it. And if you can find a spot that resonates with your book of the moment, or share a place with a fellow reader, all the better. ‘Reading connects us, and it connects us to ourselves. It helps us understand who we are and how other humans behave, and it increases our empathy. Those are all great things.’
Shelf Life: Elizabeth Day
This book made me a reader…
Meg and Mog by Helen Nicoll and Jan Pieńkowski. My mother read those books to me when I was little, so they’re one of my earliest memories. The bold colours and illustrations have always stayed lodged in my mind. And they involve a cat, and I’m a lifelong lover of cats, so I think they shaped me as a cat lover as well as a reader. I started loving books because I connected them with those moments with my mother, sitting on the window seat in our home in Epsom before we moved to Northern Ireland. I came to understand that these magical letters could transport me somewhere in my own imagination.
This book was formative in my youth…
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. Again, it’s a memory of my dad, who would sometimes read them to me at bedtime. But I also found the character of Anne Shirley incredibly appealing. I loved her stubbornness. I used to be called a stubborn child, but another way of saying stubborn is that you know your own mind, and there’s a strength of character in that which I admired. I also loved how seriously she took friendship, finding a kindred spirit in Diana Barry. It was one of the earliest books that made me understand the extraordinary value of finding your people. And I had a massive crush on Gilbert Blythe.
This book is one I can’t stop returning to…
The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard. I don’t reread much, because there are so many books still left to read, but I return to these more than any others. Elizabeth Jane Howard never got the reputation she deserved in her lifetime, but thankfully she underwent a literary reassessment towards the end of her life. She writes a vast cast of characters, and she inhabits the mind of each one. That’s an extraordinary skill. When I was writing my first novel, I went back to them to see how she did it. I was lucky enough to meet her a couple of times before she died, which was a dream come true, and she was kind enough to give that first novel a blurb.
This book broadened my horizons…
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Everything Chimamanda has written has broadened my horizons, but I adore this novel because it is epic in resonance but personal in scope. She paints a broad canvas yet makes it digestible through her brilliance with character. It tells a story of immigration, of race in modern America, of outsidership and belonging, and it made me think about the world in many different ways. I first read it on holiday in Tenerife, and my copy still has grains of sand in the spine. I love that, because a book becomes a kind of sense memory.
This book is my comfort blanket…
The Fortnight in September by RC Sherriff. It’s an interwar novel published by Persephone Books, one of my favourite publishers. Persephone specialises in overlooked or forgotten interwar women writers, so Sherriff is a rarity in their list becaus he’s a man. This beautiful novel follows a family on a seaside holiday, and it’s as simple as it sounds, but he makes the mundane so profound, moving and funny. It reads almost like the antidote to his war experience, as if to say: this is what we fought for, our right to a normal life. It’s a comforting, joyous book.
I wish I’d written this book…
The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe. It’s a panoramic view of 1980s New York written with such kinetic energy. It has plot, pace and characters you’ll never forget. He grasped a moment in modern history and put it all on the page in a really entertaining way. When I first started writing books I tried to write like Tom Wolfe, and I quickly discovered that I couldn’t. There’s only one Tom Wolfe. Every writer has to find their own voice, and it’s our own voice, and our imperfections, that make us unique.
I can’t stop talking about this book…
May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry, which has just been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It asks profound questions about what history really is, who gets to tell which story, and what we can and can’t possibly know. I championed it from the moment I read it. Then, last week, I ran into Rebecca twice in one day around the corner from my house. Neither of us knew who the other was, but she stopped me at a crossing to ask where my trouser suit was from, because she was looking for something to wear to the Booker. I complimented her chic bob, she asked my name, and it all came out. A few hours later I was walking back from recording Woman’s Hour and passed her again on her way into the BBC. I feel that we are fated to be friends.
I can’t wait for this book to hit shelves…
Any Day Now by Bethia Hale. I’m reading a proof copy at the moment. It’s about a fairly new romantic relationship that ends in the first chapter when the boyfriend dies. I’d never read a book like it. It looks at grief and love, and what it means to feel you knew someone deeply without having known them for long. I think it’s going to be this generation’s One Day.
Out 1 April 2027 (Phoenix)
I’d recommend this book to anyone and everyone who will listen…
The Neapolitan Quartet by Elena Ferrante. I read them at a time in my life when I really needed them, because I was going through a divorce, and Ferrante deals with divorce, with what it is to be a woman, and with female friendship. They’re unique because vanishingly few novels, let alone a series of four, treat female friendship with as much seriousness as Ferrante gives it. She has stayed anonymous and given only a handful of interviews, all by email. She proves you can write a modern classic and find your audience without playing the promotional game.
Find out more about BookMarks at coca-cola.com
The Party is on ITV1 at 9pm on Sunday 11 October 2026 and will be available to stream on ITVX.
