Helen Rappaport | |
|---|---|
 Helen Rappaport inLondon, c. 2013 | |
| Born | Helen Ware June 1947 (age 78) Bromley, England |
| Education | Bachelor of Arts |
| Alma mater | University of Leeds |
| Occupation | Author |
| Children | 2 daughters |
| Website | helenrappaport |
Helen F. Rappaport (née Ware; born June 1947) is a British historian and former actress. She specialises in theVictorian era and revolutionaryRussia.[1]
Rappaport was born Helen Ware inBromley, grew up near theRiver Medway in North Kent and attendedChatham Grammar School for Girls. Her older brotherMike Ware, born 1939, is a photographer, chemist, and writer.[2] She has twin younger brothers, Peter (also a photographer) and Christopher, born in 1953.[3]
She studied Russian atLeeds University where she was involved in the university Theatre Group and launched her acting career.[4]
After acting with the Leeds University Theatre Group she appeared in several television series includingCrown Court,Love Hurts andThe Bill.[5] She later claimed to have spent "20 years in the doldrums as an out of work, broke and miserable actress".[6]
In the early nineties she became a copy editor for academic publishersBlackwell andOUP[4] and also contributed to historical and biographical reference works published by for exampleCassell andReader's Digest.[7]
She became a full-time writer in 1998,[4] writing three books for US publisherABC-CLIO includingAn Encyclopaedia of Women Social Reformers in 2001, with a foreword byMarian Wright Edelman. It won an award in 2002 from theAmerican Library Association as an Outstanding Reference Source and according to theTimes Higher Education Supplement, 'A splendid book, informative and wide-ranging'.[8]
In 2003[9] Rappaport discovered and purchased an 1869 portrait of Jamaican nurseMary Seacole byAlbert Charles Challen. The picture now hangs in theNational Portrait Gallery.[10][11]
Mary Seacole features in Rappaport's 2007 bookNo Place for Ladies: The Untold Story of Women in the Crimean War which was praised bySimon Sebag Montefiore as being 'Poignant and inspirational, well researched yet thoroughly readable' and also received positive reviews inThe Times andThe Guardian.[12]
Her 2008 bookEkaterinburg: The Last Days of theRomanovs received laudatory reviews in both the UK[13] and US[14] and was a bestseller.[7]
Conspirator: Lenin in Exile published in 2009 gained considerable publicity due to Rappaport's claim thatLenin died fromsyphilis and not a stroke.[15]
Her 2010 book,Beautiful For Ever describes the growth of the Victorian cosmetics industry and tells the story ofMadame Rachel who found both fame and infamy peddling products which claimed almost magical powers of "restoration and preservation".[citation needed]
Magnificent Obsession was published on 3 November 2011, the 150th anniversary of its subject; the death ofPrince Albert.[7]
Capturing the Light: The Birth of Photography, co-written with Roger Watson, tells the story ofHenry Fox Talbot andLouis Daguerre. Both authors took part in an event during the Edinburgh Book Festival on 14 August 2013.[16]
Caught in the Revolution: Petrograd, Russia, 1917 – A World on the Edge was published in 2016 in the UK, where it received many positive reviews.[17]
Rappaport is a fluent Russian speaker and is a translator of Russian plays, notably those ofAnton Chekhov, working withTom Stoppard,David Hare,David Lan andNicholas Wright.[4]
"Love is not the right word – I have found all of them intriguing and fascinating, but also at times absolutely infuriating. You don't necessarily need to like your subject to write about him or her but you do need to be curious about them and you do have to want to get at the truth".
Rappaport has two daughters.[19]
