Eldest child of Frederick Edwin Smith, Conservative politician and Lord
Chancellor, who was created Earl of Birkenhead in 1922, for his
political services. Eleanor Smith worked for some years as a society
reporter and cinema reviewer, before travelling more widely as a
publicist for circus companies. She believed that her paternal
great-grandmother was a gypsy, and she spent much of her short life
researching Romany culture - albeit from a very romanticised point of
view. She wrote a number of popular novels and short stories, often
using historical or Spanish gypsy themes. Many were adapted for the
screen by Gainsborough Films.