Hallie Rubenhold | |
|---|---|
 Rubenhold at theBritish Library in 2022 | |
| Born | 1971 (age 53–54) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of Massachusetts Amherst (BA) University of Leeds (MA,MPhil) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | History |
| Sub-discipline | |
| Notable works | The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper (2019) |
Hallie Rubenhold (born 1971) is an American-born British popular historian and author.[1][2] Her work specializes in 18th- and 19th-century social history and women's history. Her 2019 bookThe Five, about the lives of the women murdered byJack the Ripper, was shortlisted for theWolfson History Prize and won theBaillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction.[3] In 2025, her book,Story of a Murder; the wives, the mistress and Dr Crippen won a Clue Award for True Crime Book of the Year. Clue Awards seek to recognise "excellence and responsible story telling in true crime".[4] Rubenhold's focus on the victims of murder (frequently women), rather than on the identity or the acts of the perpetrator, has been credited with changing attitudes to the proper commemoration of such crimes and to the appeal and function of thetrue crime genre.[5]
Rubenhold was born in Los Angeles to a British father and American mother[6] and undertook a BA in History at theUniversity of Massachusetts,Amherst. She then gained an MA in British History and History of Art and an MPhil in History from theUniversity of Leeds, on the subject of marriage and child-rearing in the 18th century. Rubenhold has also worked in the commercial art world forPhilip Mould and as an assistant curator for theNational Portrait Gallery.[7]
In 2005, she wrote a history ofHarris's List of Covent Garden Ladies and its author in her bookThe Covent Garden Ladies: Pimp General Jack and the Extraordinary Story of Harris's List, and, in 2008, she publishedThe Harlot's Handbook: Harris's List, a selection of the directories' "funniest, rudest and most surreal entries". TheBBC later adapted the material for a documentary, presented by Rubenhold herself calledThe Harlot's Handbook.[8]
Rubenhold appears regularly as an expert contributor on history documentaries for British and US networks. In the past she has appeared on BBC 2'sBalderdash and Piffle, discussing the origins ofmerkins with burlesque star Immodesty Blaize and on BBC 4'sAge of Excess. She has contributed to the BBC seriesThe Beauty of Maps and toHistory Cold Case and to Channel 4'sTitanic: The Mission, as well as the Travel Channel'sMysteries at the Museum andPrivate Lives of the Monarchs.[9] She also works as a historical consultant for period dramas, includingJonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (BBC) andHarlots (Hulu / Amazon).[10]
Her book,Lady Worsley's Whim, published in November 2008, is an account of one of the 18th-century's most sensational sex scandals, thecriminal conversation case ofSir Richard Worsley againstMaurice George Bisset for having committed adultery withSeymour Fleming, a member ofThe New Female Coterie established byCaroline Stanhope, Countess of Harrington. It featured as BBC Radio 4'sBook of the Week from 3 November 2008 and was adapted into a 90-minute drama for BBC 2 entitledThe Scandalous Lady W, broadcast on 17 August 2015, and starringNatalie Dormer.
Rubenhold has written two novels, both set during the 18th century.The French Lesson is set duringthe Terror in Revolutionary Paris. It follows on from her first novel,Mistress of My Fate, the first book in theConfessions of Henrietta Lightfoot series. Both books are written as anhommage to classic works of 18th- and early 19th-century literature.[11]
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper, a biography of the five victims ofJack the Ripper,[12] won the £50,000Baillie Gifford Prize in 2019 and was named the Hay Festival Book of the Year.[13][14] It was also shortlisted for the 2020Wolfson History Prize.[15]
Rubenhold is married and lives in London.[16]
