Exclusive: Elizabeth Day reveals the kindest celebrity she's ever interviewed
Elizabeth Day, 46, has interviewed stars including Kate Winslet, Salman Rushdie, Justin Baldoni and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, but the kindest star she's ever interviewed is a little bit closer to home.
"I spoke to Miranda Hart recently. I don't know why I'm feeling emotional about it, but it was the first interview that she had given. She'd taken ten years out of her everyday life and her job because she was living with a chronic illness, and she wrote an amazing book about it.
"She had that really open-hearted approach, where the reason she wanted to speak and write about what she'd been through was to help others. It was a very, very special interview and conversation, and we got on incredibly well. She's someone whose kindness radiates from her, and I think you can tell that from her comedy. It's not about dragging other people down. It's not about roasting anyone, it's actually about finding those moments of connection, in our vulnerability, in our clumsy moments, there's an accessibility to it that I really value."
Elizabeth is taking kindness into her own hands this Christmas with a special initiative from a charity close to her heart.
"I'm really proud to be an ambassador for Bookbanks, which is an incredible charity that puts free books, into food banks, so that when someone comes along to a food bank out of necessity, they can also feed their cultural soul.
"As well as feeding themselves physically, they can connect through the written page, and I just fundamentally believe that books and literature and reading can save us."
She continued: "Throughout December, 10 per cent of sales on selected indie bookshop titles, or all sales, will go directly to Bookbanks. It's a really fantastic initiative. And I would encourage anyone who wants to buy a book for Christmas for themselves or for a present for others."
While there are a wide range of books available to choose from, Elizabeth recommends Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Quartet.
"I remember reading them first at the end of 2015 when I was going through a divorce, and I felt that she spoke to me directly through the page, because one of her characters also has a marital breaking down. And so much of what Elena Ferrante writes about is about how poverty can shape you for good as well as for bad, and how women can survive and be resilient and find solidarity in their community.
"I felt like reading it gave me back a sense of agency when I was coming out of this failed relationship. And I think that those books are a great gift for any woman in your life and men too, but specifically women who might be struggling with something. It just makes you feel really powerful to read those books."
Away from work, Elizabeth is keen to keep kindness at the forefront of her everyday life.
"I think kindness starts with non with being non-judgmental and open-hearted, and so I think I'm trying to embody that much more as I go about my daily life," she told HELLO!
"And when I see someone who I think is struggling, or when I see a homeless person who may be due with a sandwich, or when I see, as I did the other day, a nun in Green Park tube station in central London collecting money for a charity, and no one was going up to her, those are the moments when I actively seek to be kind and to reach out, because kindness is a verb as well as a noun. It's about the actions that you embed in your everyday life. So I think for me, those small moments are really important in the run-up to Christmas."
To find out more about the Books That Give initiative, go to: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/books-that-give
