Lady Eleanor Smith

In 1953, after Smith's death, Frederick Smith, her brother and 2nd Earl of Birkenhead--with whom she was very close--published a memoir about her life.

She died in Westminster in 1945 after a long illness. Although it was her wish to be buried in Banbury with her father, her body was cremated by her family.

Her requiem mass was conducted by Father Martin D'Arcy at Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street on 31 October 1945. Her mass was attended by several other members of literary and high society, including Sir Osbert Sitwell; Maureen, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava; Cathleen, Marchioness of Queensberry; Margaret, Countess of Kimberley; Ann, Viscountess Rothermere; Bridget Parsons; and Lord Pakenham.

Smith also wrote ghost stories; many of them were collected in her book Satan's Circus (1932). Smith was a supporter of the Conservative Party. In 1937, she responded to Nancy Cunard's survey of writers and poets on the topic of the Spanish Civil war, saying that she was a "warm adherent of General Franco."

Smith said during an interview that she began to write her novels at only 12 years old, but she claimed to have burned all of them later in life. Her first novel, Red Wagon, was published when she was 28 in 1930, and it immediately became a bestseller. Smith was a prolific writer, writing about one novel every year on average during her prime. One of her novels, Ballerina, was inspired by her friendships with the Diaghilev and his prima ballerina, Anna Pavlova. Smith said, "Had I not watched Pavlova so closely that day at Golders Green, the book would never have been written...At the same time, I think that Pavlova had either directly or indirectly inspired us all, and Pavlova was dead. She had certainly inspired Pat, Frances, and myself". A few of her most notable novels were also adapted for films, one of which, Caravan, wasn't created until after her death. The actress Margaret Lockwood, one of the most popular actresses of the 1930s and 1940s, famously starred in The Man in Grey.

She went to Miss Douglas's school at Queen's Gate. At Queen's Gate she met Lady Allanah Harper, Zita Jungman, and Teresa "Baby" Jungman and together they became early members of what the British press would call the "Bright Young Things", a nickname given by the tabloid press to a group of bohemian young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s London.

Lady Eleanor Furneaux Smith (7 August 1902 – 20 October 1945) was an English writer and active member of the Bright Young Things.

Born in Birkenhead, England in 1902, Smith was the eldest child of the politician F. E. Smith's three children; her mother was Margaret Furneaux, daughter of the academic Henry Furneaux. Eleanor Smith was great-granddaughter of Joseph Severn on her mother's side, the Devonshire Furneaux, a Norman family. Her brother was Frederick Smith, 2nd Earl of Birkenhead, and her sister Lady Pamela married Hon. Michael Berry. Her father was created Earl of Birkenhead in 1922.