Eleanor Doughty
@brushingboots.bsky.social
Writer on the aristocracy, big houses, old money; author of HEIRS AND GRACES, a history of the modern aristocracy, which is out now! Views my own, yours for £. edoughty92@gmail.com
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/453305/heirs-and-graces-by-doughty-eleanor/
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/453305/heirs-and-graces-by-doughty-eleanor/
Pinned
It’s tough being a toff — the decline of the British aristocracy
In Heirs and Graces, Eleanor Doughty documents how aristocrats are surviving in an age of inheritance tax, from turning their estates into safari parks to working for B&Q
www.thetimes.com
‘This is a marvellous book’
Heirs and Graces is reviewed in today’s Times and I am a little emotional (again).
www.thetimes.com/article/68f2...
Heirs and Graces is reviewed in today’s Times and I am a little emotional (again).
www.thetimes.com/article/68f2...
It is a mark of how utterly fascinating the next interview that I am due to write up is that I am actively choosing to do the transcribing for it on a Sunday evening. Writing is the best, huh?
November 9, 2025 at 7:27 PM
It is a mark of how utterly fascinating the next interview that I am due to write up is that I am actively choosing to do the transcribing for it on a Sunday evening. Writing is the best, huh?
The very first hint of the sun today has just come, at this late hour of... 15:43. Great!
November 6, 2025 at 3:43 PM
The very first hint of the sun today has just come, at this late hour of... 15:43. Great!
Fancy just taking a job at Oxford to get over a bad ex – or school, in this case
November 5, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Fancy just taking a job at Oxford to get over a bad ex – or school, in this case
Reposted by Eleanor Doughty
This week's Great Estates is on Weston Park – that great house with a genuinely fantastic collection that Richard Bradford gave to the nation in 1986, after so much heartache, and thanks to punitive death duties. Almost 40 years on, how is it doing now?
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/a19cc3d...
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/a19cc3d...
‘We’re competing against luxury hotels to keep this 350-year-old estate running’
Great Estates: After being sold to the nation to pay death taxes, Weston Park now thrives as a wedding and events venue
www.telegraph.co.uk
November 3, 2025 at 9:07 AM
This week's Great Estates is on Weston Park – that great house with a genuinely fantastic collection that Richard Bradford gave to the nation in 1986, after so much heartache, and thanks to punitive death duties. Almost 40 years on, how is it doing now?
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/a19cc3d...
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/a19cc3d...
This week's Great Estates is on Weston Park – that great house with a genuinely fantastic collection that Richard Bradford gave to the nation in 1986, after so much heartache, and thanks to punitive death duties. Almost 40 years on, how is it doing now?
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/a19cc3d...
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/a19cc3d...
‘We’re competing against luxury hotels to keep this 350-year-old estate running’
Great Estates: After being sold to the nation to pay death taxes, Weston Park now thrives as a wedding and events venue
www.telegraph.co.uk
November 3, 2025 at 9:07 AM
This week's Great Estates is on Weston Park – that great house with a genuinely fantastic collection that Richard Bradford gave to the nation in 1986, after so much heartache, and thanks to punitive death duties. Almost 40 years on, how is it doing now?
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/a19cc3d...
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/a19cc3d...
Pls no, not Amal Rajan
November 2, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Pls no, not Amal Rajan
Saturday at home book(plate) signing for Hatchards! If you want one for your own copy or for one you’re buying someone for Christmas, let me know and I will post you one! I love signing stuff
November 1, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Saturday at home book(plate) signing for Hatchards! If you want one for your own copy or for one you’re buying someone for Christmas, let me know and I will post you one! I love signing stuff
This is such a generous, lovely essay by Simon Heffer about my book HEIRS AND GRACES and the subject of it, the British aristocracy – in this month's New Criterion. And what a headline! Best headline I've ever seen on this subject, I reckon
newcriterion.com/article/lord...
newcriterion.com/article/lord...
“Lording it, over,” by Simon Heffer
Simon Heffer on “Heirs & Graces: A History of the Modern British Aristocracy,” by Eleanor Doughty.
newcriterion.com
October 31, 2025 at 11:12 AM
This is such a generous, lovely essay by Simon Heffer about my book HEIRS AND GRACES and the subject of it, the British aristocracy – in this month's New Criterion. And what a headline! Best headline I've ever seen on this subject, I reckon
newcriterion.com/article/lord...
newcriterion.com/article/lord...
Reposted by Eleanor Doughty
For this week's issue of The Tablet I wrote about one of my favourite subjects: the Catholic aristocracy! Ft an outstanding story from Lord Acton about growing up at Marcham Priory, Lord Mansfield's 1990s kidnapping, and a WW1 fighter ace decried for his religion
www.thetablet.co.uk/features/bri...
www.thetablet.co.uk/features/bri...
Brideshead recycled - The Tablet
In the early 1970s at the chapel of Marcham Priory, near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, there lived a cat by the name of Pussy Black. He belonged to the Hon. Marie
www.thetablet.co.uk
October 24, 2025 at 8:24 AM
For this week's issue of The Tablet I wrote about one of my favourite subjects: the Catholic aristocracy! Ft an outstanding story from Lord Acton about growing up at Marcham Priory, Lord Mansfield's 1990s kidnapping, and a WW1 fighter ace decried for his religion
www.thetablet.co.uk/features/bri...
www.thetablet.co.uk/features/bri...
I just said ‘I’m so so sorry’ to my dog and am now inexplicably thinking about Nick Clegg. It’s amazing what sticks
October 27, 2025 at 6:43 PM
I just said ‘I’m so so sorry’ to my dog and am now inexplicably thinking about Nick Clegg. It’s amazing what sticks
Reposted by Eleanor Doughty
I should add that for this piece I interviewed my first cardinal – Cardinal Radcliffe – which was an enormous pleasure. He was absolutely fantastic – very thoughtful, very interesting, very calm. Could have talked to him all day. I recommend it to you on that basis alone
For this week's issue of The Tablet I wrote about one of my favourite subjects: the Catholic aristocracy! Ft an outstanding story from Lord Acton about growing up at Marcham Priory, Lord Mansfield's 1990s kidnapping, and a WW1 fighter ace decried for his religion
www.thetablet.co.uk/features/bri...
www.thetablet.co.uk/features/bri...
Brideshead recycled - The Tablet
In the early 1970s at the chapel of Marcham Priory, near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, there lived a cat by the name of Pussy Black. He belonged to the Hon. Marie
www.thetablet.co.uk
October 25, 2025 at 8:42 AM
I should add that for this piece I interviewed my first cardinal – Cardinal Radcliffe – which was an enormous pleasure. He was absolutely fantastic – very thoughtful, very interesting, very calm. Could have talked to him all day. I recommend it to you on that basis alone
I should add that for this piece I interviewed my first cardinal – Cardinal Radcliffe – which was an enormous pleasure. He was absolutely fantastic – very thoughtful, very interesting, very calm. Could have talked to him all day. I recommend it to you on that basis alone
For this week's issue of The Tablet I wrote about one of my favourite subjects: the Catholic aristocracy! Ft an outstanding story from Lord Acton about growing up at Marcham Priory, Lord Mansfield's 1990s kidnapping, and a WW1 fighter ace decried for his religion
www.thetablet.co.uk/features/bri...
www.thetablet.co.uk/features/bri...
Brideshead recycled - The Tablet
In the early 1970s at the chapel of Marcham Priory, near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, there lived a cat by the name of Pussy Black. He belonged to the Hon. Marie
www.thetablet.co.uk
October 25, 2025 at 8:42 AM
I should add that for this piece I interviewed my first cardinal – Cardinal Radcliffe – which was an enormous pleasure. He was absolutely fantastic – very thoughtful, very interesting, very calm. Could have talked to him all day. I recommend it to you on that basis alone
For this week's issue of The Tablet I wrote about one of my favourite subjects: the Catholic aristocracy! Ft an outstanding story from Lord Acton about growing up at Marcham Priory, Lord Mansfield's 1990s kidnapping, and a WW1 fighter ace decried for his religion
www.thetablet.co.uk/features/bri...
www.thetablet.co.uk/features/bri...
Brideshead recycled - The Tablet
In the early 1970s at the chapel of Marcham Priory, near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, there lived a cat by the name of Pussy Black. He belonged to the Hon. Marie
www.thetablet.co.uk
October 24, 2025 at 8:24 AM
For this week's issue of The Tablet I wrote about one of my favourite subjects: the Catholic aristocracy! Ft an outstanding story from Lord Acton about growing up at Marcham Priory, Lord Mansfield's 1990s kidnapping, and a WW1 fighter ace decried for his religion
www.thetablet.co.uk/features/bri...
www.thetablet.co.uk/features/bri...
Reposted by Eleanor Doughty
I interviewed 'the wolf man' Paul Lister, MFI heir and owner of the Alladale estate in Sutherland about bringing wolves back to Scotland, the value of land in the UK, and why rich people like him keep buying estates. It was all quite bonkers and extremely good fun
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/3293012...
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/3293012...
‘I want my 23,000-acre Scottish estate to be a reserve for wild wolves’
Great Estates: Paul Lister takes inspiration for his Highlands home from South Africa and Yellowstone
www.telegraph.co.uk
October 20, 2025 at 8:58 AM
I interviewed 'the wolf man' Paul Lister, MFI heir and owner of the Alladale estate in Sutherland about bringing wolves back to Scotland, the value of land in the UK, and why rich people like him keep buying estates. It was all quite bonkers and extremely good fun
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/3293012...
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/3293012...
I interviewed 'the wolf man' Paul Lister, MFI heir and owner of the Alladale estate in Sutherland about bringing wolves back to Scotland, the value of land in the UK, and why rich people like him keep buying estates. It was all quite bonkers and extremely good fun
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/3293012...
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/3293012...
‘I want my 23,000-acre Scottish estate to be a reserve for wild wolves’
Great Estates: Paul Lister takes inspiration for his Highlands home from South Africa and Yellowstone
www.telegraph.co.uk
October 20, 2025 at 8:58 AM
I interviewed 'the wolf man' Paul Lister, MFI heir and owner of the Alladale estate in Sutherland about bringing wolves back to Scotland, the value of land in the UK, and why rich people like him keep buying estates. It was all quite bonkers and extremely good fun
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/3293012...
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/3293012...
Sunday at the county tip = the innermost circle of hell. People who can't park, half an orchard stuffed in the back of a Ford Focus, TVs being carried by kids. Deliciously awful
October 19, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Sunday at the county tip = the innermost circle of hell. People who can't park, half an orchard stuffed in the back of a Ford Focus, TVs being carried by kids. Deliciously awful
Sorry to whoever I mortally wounded in a past life that felt this strongly about my apparently appalling book! Very sorry! Very sorry indeed!
October 17, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Sorry to whoever I mortally wounded in a past life that felt this strongly about my apparently appalling book! Very sorry! Very sorry indeed!
Reposted by Eleanor Doughty
Not giving them up, just not using them. news.sky.com/story/prince...
Prince Andrew to give up all his titles and honours, including Duke of York
It follows increasing pressure on Prince Andrew after more reports emerged of his relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, and his relationship with an alleged Chinese spy.
news.sky.com
October 17, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Not giving them up, just not using them. news.sky.com/story/prince...
Glad to have committed a small patch of news at Cheltenham yesterday
October 17, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Glad to have committed a small patch of news at Cheltenham yesterday
I did a really exciting thing! It was excellent! I recommend speaking at literary festivals to all! Everyone I spoke to was just really nice and said gorgeous things about my book and well, what more could you want? Plus, Starburst in the green room
October 16, 2025 at 2:50 PM
I did a really exciting thing! It was excellent! I recommend speaking at literary festivals to all! Everyone I spoke to was just really nice and said gorgeous things about my book and well, what more could you want? Plus, Starburst in the green room
So pathetically excited to be going to the Cheltenham festival today as a speaker and not a punter – if you’re in town I’m speaking at 1pm about my book HEIRS AND GRACES alongside the Duke of Beaufort
www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/events/the-c...
www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/events/the-c...
The Changing Aristocracy | Cheltenham Festivals
There are fewer than 5000 people who can genuinely claim to be members of the British aristocracy, yet we are fascinated by their houses and estates, their
www.cheltenhamfestivals.org
October 16, 2025 at 8:22 AM
So pathetically excited to be going to the Cheltenham festival today as a speaker and not a punter – if you’re in town I’m speaking at 1pm about my book HEIRS AND GRACES alongside the Duke of Beaufort
www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/events/the-c...
www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/events/the-c...
I think it every single day but I maintain that the schedule send option on Gmail is the very best innovation of the last decade
October 12, 2025 at 3:45 PM
I think it every single day but I maintain that the schedule send option on Gmail is the very best innovation of the last decade
Halloween has come early to the driveway
October 12, 2025 at 9:20 AM
Halloween has come early to the driveway
I haven't much to add about the Nobel Prize but this. Bobbety Salisbury was once showing some American senators around Hatfield when they came upon a picture of Bob Cecil, one of the architects of the League of Nations. They said how amazing it must be to have a Nobel Prize winner in the family...
October 10, 2025 at 12:40 PM
I haven't much to add about the Nobel Prize but this. Bobbety Salisbury was once showing some American senators around Hatfield when they came upon a picture of Bob Cecil, one of the architects of the League of Nations. They said how amazing it must be to have a Nobel Prize winner in the family...
I am utterly thrilled to find my piece on the aristocracy and racing on the front of today’s Racing Post – truly, little could be more thrilling! What a fun piece to write, pegged to the publication of my book HEIRS AND GRACES, a history of the modern British aristocracy
October 9, 2025 at 10:46 AM
I am utterly thrilled to find my piece on the aristocracy and racing on the front of today’s Racing Post – truly, little could be more thrilling! What a fun piece to write, pegged to the publication of my book HEIRS AND GRACES, a history of the modern British aristocracy