Eleanor Updale was born in 1953 and grew up in South London. She studied history at St. Anne's College, Oxford, England before becoming a producer of television and radio current affairs programmes for the BBC. She studied at the new Centre for Editing Lives and Letters at Queen Mary, University of London, and was awarded a Ph.D in 2007. She is also a trustee of the charity Listening Books.Montmorency was her first book.

She is married to broadcaster James Naughtie.