Elaine Randell was born in south London in 1951. She now lives on Romney Marsh on a small holding in Kent with her husband Ian Rose, two English Setter dogs, sheep and chickens. Elaine Randell has three daughters. In the 1960s Randell started Amazing Grace, a poetry magazine, which she edited from her bedroom in Horn Park Lane, Lee Green. Poets contributing included James Kirkup, Nicholas Moore, Barry MacSweeney, Peter Bland, Jeff Nuttall, Mike Horovitz, Jeremy Reed, Tom Pickard and Tony Rudolf

Elaine Randell married Barry MacSweeney in 1973, they lived in south London, Folkestone and Lyminge in Kent, MacSweeney's drinking was problematic and they divorced in 1978. Randell has been widely published and her works include, Songs of Hesperus, Telegrams from the Midnight Country, Untitled, Seven Poems, A Taper to the Outward Roome, Early In My Life This, Our Frailty, Long Hair For Birds, Larger Breath of All Things, Hard to Place, Songs for the Sleepless, Gut Reaction, Beyond All Other, Selected Poems, Faulty Mothering, The Meaning of Things.

Elaine Randell's Collected Poems and Prose was published in November 2024 by Shearsman Press.

Randell has worked as a social worker and Child and Family Psychotherapist throughout her life, specialising in working with adopted children and their families. She is keen on working collaboratively with artists and poets. Songs for the Sleepless was set to choral music by Bill Connors at the Llandudno Festival. She has recently embarked on a collaboration with the award winning artist Claire Mitchell.