Ella Dingley was born in Minsk in 1962. She studied Belarusian and Russian languages and literatures in the Belarusian State University in Minsk, and graduated in 1984. She then worked as a teacher of Russian in a Minsk secondary school, and later taught Russian as a foreign language. Later in 1990, when working as a journalist for the foreign service of Radio Minsk, she attended celebrations to mark the 500 year anniversary of the birth of the Belarusian first printer Francis Skaryna in the city of Polacak. It was here that she met Jim, and both of their lives changed radically. Following her arrival in the UK, Ella worked as a stringer for the Russian section of the BBC World Service and the Belarusian Service of Radio Liberty. She has taught Russian with the School of Slavonic and East European Studies and more recently has been teaching English as a foreign language.

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