Elspeth now lives in Dunbar, East Lothian having previously lived in London, Wiltshire, Glasgow, Galloway and Edinburgh. She was born Elspeth Stewart and brought up in London by Scottish parents.
Her early writing was done between teaching and bringing up four children. She writes poetry short stories and plays.
 In 1980 she moved from Glasgow to the Old Station at Parton, in Dumfries and Galloway. One of her most significant influences has been working with the Solway Poets. There she also developed an interest in the Scientist, James Clerk Maxwell who is buried in Parton Kirk.
She continued to write during a sojourn in Edinburgh. Plays performed include “The Siege of Haddington,” in St Mary’s Church, Haddington. “Also Dynamo of the Twenty First Century,” a play about the life of James Clerk Maxwell performed at his birthplace in Edinburgh and Fringe Festival and also in 2002 a revised version called “The Spectrum,” with Andrew Dallmeyer playing Einstein.
Elspeth has done some editing and criticism and has run creative writing workshops.  Now in Dunbar she is working on a series of poems about the ecologist John Muir who was born there. She is also trying to complete a novel she abandoned a few years ago about a subversive group in the run up period to the Scottish Parliament. She is finding the writers and artists of Dunbar and the beautiful setting, a great inspiration.