Eleanor Doughty was born in 1992 in Wiltshire, England. She began her career in journalism as an intern at the The Times, before taking a staff job at the Daily Telegraph. Having worked at the i newspaper as deputy comment editor, she went freelance to concentrate on writing in 2019. She has written the Great Estates column in the Telegraph since 2017, and specialises in writing about the British aristocracy, the moneyed and titled classes, the rural economy and in particular country houses and their owners.

Her writing has appeared in the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph, Financial Times, the Spectator, Country Life, The Times and Sunday Times, Town & Country, Tatler, Evening Standard, City AM, Country & Town House, The Field, Shooting Times, The London Magazine, School House, Standpoint, The Critic, The Week, Catholic Herald, The Tablet, Gentleman’s Journal, and The Oldie.

Her first book of non-fiction, Heirs and Graces, a study of the British aristocracy since 1945, will be published by Penguin Random House in September 2025.

When she is not writing, she can be found either on or near a horse, or out with her cocker spaniel.