Dolly Alderton

Dolly Alderton (born 31 August 1988) is a British author and screenwriter. She is also columnist for The Sunday Times. Her memoir Everything I Know About Love won a 2018 National Book Award for autobiography and was shortlisted for the 2019 Non-Fiction Narrative Book of the Year in the British Book Awards, and adapted into a BBC/Peacock eponymous television drama series.

Alderton was born in Waltham Forest, London and grew up in Stanmore, London. She was born to British and Canadian parents, and describes herself as "half Canadian". Born Hannah Katherine Alderton, she changed her name to Dolly in her early teens. She was educated at St Margaret's School in Bushey, and Rugby School, where she boarded in the sixth form. She earned a degree in drama and English from the University of Exeter, and a master's degree in journalism from City University in London.

Alderton is an author, journalist, and podcast host.

Alderton began writing for The Sunday Times in 2015, working initially as a dating columnist from 2015 to 2017. In 2020, she began working as an agony aunt for The Sunday Times in her column Dear Dolly.

Alderton's debut book, Everything I Know About Love, was published in February 2018. BBC News described it as "offering readers a frank and deeply personal account of friendships, relationships and growing up as a millennial". The memoir was shortlisted for the National Book Awards in 2018 in the Autobiography category (won that year by Michelle Obama for Becoming). It was shortlisted for the 2018 Waterstones Book of the Year. In October 2020, Alderton was working on a TV adaptation of Everything I Know About Love. It was produced by Working Title Television and Universal International Studios for BBC, with a screenplay by Alderton, directed by China Moo-Young.^{[citation needed]}

Her first novel, Ghosts, was published in October 2020 by Fig Tree. The novel concerns a 32-year-old food writer, Nina, who meets someone through a dating app, while her father is beginning to show signs of dementia. In October 2020, it was reported that Alderton had sold the film rights to Ghosts.

In October 2022, Alderton released a third book entitled Dear Dolly, a collection of her Sunday Times columns and a new personal essay. Alderton's second novel, Good Material, was released in November 2023. In 2024 Alderton was nominated for and shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for her novel Good Material.

Alderton co-created and co-hosted The High Low with Pandora Sykes. The High Low was a weekly podcast focusing on pop culture and current affairs. The podcast ran for four years and over 150 episodes were recorded. The final episode aired on 2 December 2020. The High Low: A Christmas Special Live Stream took place on 8 December 2020 to raise funds for Blood Cancer UK.