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Dolly Alderton (Magazine, 2010), an award-winning journalist and author, has been shortlisted for the XCity Award for her chart-topping podcast, The High Low, and her recently released bestselling memoir, Everything I Know About Love.
The High Low, a weekly pop-culture and news podcast—hosted by Alderton alongside fellow lifestyle journalist, Pandora Sykes—hit number two in the UK iTunes chart within a month of its launch in February 2017.
Alderton attributed the podcast’s success to its ethos of “curiosity in all things.” She said: “A person can be as interested in literature and current affairs as they are in box sets and celebrities.”
The inspiration for the show was Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown who coined the term “high low journalism”—a phrase used to describe the blend of trivial and hard-hitting political content.
While developing and launching The High Low, Alderton was also working on her first book, Everything I Know About Love, which was published on 1 February 2018. Commenting on writing a memoir at just 28, she said: “[I]t felt like a cycle of my life, and the collective life of my friendship group was coming to a close and a new one was beginning.
“I wanted to tell the stories from this first stage of adulthood and reflect on everything I’ve learnt and all the things that have changed, the mistakes I’ve made, the people I’ve lost, the fun I’ve had and the love I’ve felt.”
She added: “I hope it makes people feel less alone, or at least makes them laugh.”
The book was included on The Sunday Times’ Top Five Bestsellers list and Alderton said she is “wonderfully surprised” by its success. She revealed that the book has been optioned for TV, so her next step will be adapting it for the screen. In the future she hopes to focus more on writing for TV and film.
This year has also seen Alderton, now 29, make the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe: Media and Marketing list. She said: “I still feel vastly unqualified for the list, but it’s a very nice compliment and at least I got it in at the 11th hour, six months before my 20s are over”
On being shortlisted for the XCity Award, she said: “It’s a great honour – I really enjoyed my time at City.”
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