David Day was born and raised in Victoria, British Columbia. His first book The Cowichan (based on his timber camp journals) was published in 1975. In 1978, Day published A Tolkien Bestiary, the first of his six internationally best-selling books on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. Day has travelled extensively, and lived in England, Greece and Spain. He currently lives in Toronto.
David Day’s landmark book on animal extinction, the Doomsday Book of Animals – with an introduction by the Duke of Edinburgh – was selected in 1981 as a “Book of the Year” by Time Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, The Los Angeles Times, The Observer, and New Scientist. This was followed by the Whale War (1987), Eco-Wars (1988), Encyclopedia of Vanished Species (1989), and Noah’s Choice (1990). Day has also been an environmental columnist for Britain’s Daily Mail, Evening Standard, Mail on Sunday, Sunday Times, and Punch Magazine. His Punch columns became the books True Tales of Environmental Madness in 1990 and The Complete Rhinoceros in 1994.
In 1996 he wrote the Lost Animals British Channel Four and Japanese NHK TV series of one hundred five-minute documentaries on extinct species. It was narrated by the Oscar-winning actress Greta Scacchi, and later was translated into 20 languages. His Whale War was the basis of a British ITV documentary.
David Day has also written six illustrated books of animal stories and three illustrated books of animal poems for children. His Emperor’s Panda was runner-up for both the Governor General’s Award and the National Library Award. His CBC and National Magazine award-winning poems have been praised by both the Canadian poet Al Purdy and the British poet laureate Ted Hughes.