Rachel Elnaugh

Rachel Elnaugh-Love (born 1964

Career

Red Letter Days

In 1989, Elnaugh founded Red Letter Days, one of the first UK companies to sell experiential gifts, such as motor racing days, hot air ballooning and health spa days. ITV1's Tonight programme criticised the business model of Red Letter Days, which included unpaid suppliers and disappointed purchasers. The programme suggested that the company failed to escrow or earmark supplier payment equity, using it instead as working capital. However, Elnaugh blamed Red Letter Days' bankers, and stated that the decision to go into administration was made to minimise job losses at the company.

Dragons' Den In the mid 2000s, Elnaugh joined the BBC's reality series Dragons' Den. During her tenure on the show, she made five agreed investment offers –in Grails, Le Beanock, Snowbone, Elizabeth Galton and Bedlam Puzzles. After Red Letter Days went into administration, between the filming and release of the second season, her "position became untenable" according to Elnaugh, and she and fellow departing Dragon Doug Richard were replaced in the third season by Richard Farleigh and Deborah Meaden.

After Dragon's Den and Red Letter Days In 2005, she was head of a company called Easyart. The Evening Heralds reviewer said "A novel and more original approach to the jaded "how to get ahead in business" manuals, even for the casual browser, Business Nightmares makes for a surprisingly entertaining and accessible read." Elnaugh founded the digital publishing and marketing platform Source TV in 2013.

Elnaugh was subsequently part of a group called 'Phoenix Rose' which bought 72 acres of land in Cressbrook Dale, Derbyshire, in an attempt to create a "safe haven away from the threat that humanity [is] facing". The group was served with an enforcement notice in August 2023, but took no action, causing the Peak District National Park Authority to forcibly remove the structures at the site, in December of that year. so she appeared on the ballot as an independent. She came in sixth place with 175 votes, being beaten by Conservative Party candidates Mark Wakeman and Gareth Bryn Gee. In February 2024 she stood in a local council by-election and placed last with 36 votes, the seat was won by Labour candidate Bob Butcher.

In February 2024, she announced her intention to stand in that year's East Midlands mayoral election, under the name "Rachel Elnaugh-Love". However, after the deadline for candidates to be officially registered, on the 6 April, had passed, her name did not appear on the final list. She again stood under that name in the 2024 general election for the Derbyshire Dales constituency. She said her focus locally would be on promoting farming, tourism, affordable housing and reopening railways; and nationally on opposing "big corporations" and "involvement with overseas wars." She came sixth with 369 votes.

Personal life As of 2023, she has five sons and has been married twice.

Books