Eleanor’s debut book, Heirs and Graces: A History of the Modern British Aristocracy is published by Penguin Random House on 4 September 2025 and is now available for pre-order.

There are fewer than 5,000 people who can claim to be members of the British aristocracy, and yet they loom large in the popular consciousness. We’re fascinated by their estates, their lives, and their eccentricities – but while they may be fellow citizens, they are very far from being People Like Us.

In Heirs and Graces Eleanor Doughty draws on her unparalleled access to a bewildering range of dukes, duchesses, and earls to create a vivid picture of who they are and how they tick. En route she traces their progress from a post-war era to their diverse current roles as guardians of ancestral mansions, farmers, and financiers. She looks at key rites of passage, and tells stories of their ups and downs – and meets the heroes and ranks of their ranks.

The result is a wonderfully rich, often amusing, always revealing account of the fortunes of the aristocracy since the Second World War and a series of fascinating glimpses into what it is like to be an aristocrat in Britain today.