Hallie Rubenhold (born 1971 in Los Angeles) is an
American-born
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
historian and author. Her work specializes in 18th and 19th century social history and women's history. Her 2019 book ''
The Five'', about the lives of the women murdered by
Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in the autumn of 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer w ...
, was shortlisted for the
Wolfson History Prize
The Wolfson History Prizes are literary awards given annually in the United Kingdom to promote and encourage standards of excellence in the writing of history for the general public. Prizes are given annually for two or three exceptional works ...
and won the
Baillie Gifford Prize
The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, formerly the Samuel Johnson Prize, is an annual British book prize for the best non-fiction writing in the English language. It was founded in 1999 following the demise of the NCR Book Award. With its m ...
for Non-fiction. 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 the
true crime
True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people associated with and affected by criminal events.
The crimes most commonly include murder; about 40 pe ...
genre.
Early life
Rubenhold was born in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
to a British father and American mother and undertook a BA in History at the
University of Massachusetts
The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and a medical ...
,
Amherst. She then gained an MA in British History and History of Art and an MPhil in History from the
University of Leeds
, mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased
, established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds
, ...
, on the subject of marriage and child-rearing in the eighteenth century. Rubenhold has also worked in the commercial art world for
Philip Mould
Philip Jonathan Clifford Mould (born March 1960) is an English art dealer, London gallery owner, art historian, writer and broadcaster. He has made a number of major art discoveries, including works of Thomas Gainsborough, Anthony Van Dyck and ...
and as an assistant curator for the
National Portrait Gallery.
Career
In 2005, she wrote an accessible history of ''
Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies
''Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies'', published from 1757 to 1795, was an annual directory of prostitutes then working in Georgian London. A small pocketbook, it was printed and published in Covent Garden, and sold for two shi ...
'' and its author in her book ''The Covent Garden Ladies: Pimp General Jack and the Extraordinary Story of Harris's List'', and, in 2008, she published ''The Harlot's Handbook: Harris's List'', a selection of the directories' "funniest, rudest and most surreal entries". The
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
later adapted the material for a documentary, presented by Rubenhold herself called ''The Harlot's Handbook''.
Rubenhold appears regularly as an expert contributor on history documentaries for British and US networks. In the past she has appeared on BBC 2's ''Balderdash and Piffle'', discussing the origins of
s with burlesque star Immodesty Blaize and on BBC 4's ''Age of Excess''. She has contributed to the BBC series ''The Beauty of Maps'' and to ''
'' and to Channel 4's ''Titanic: The Mission'', as well as the Travel Channel's ''Mysteries at the Museum'' and ''Private Lives of the Monarchs''. She also works as a historical consultant for period dramas, including ''
'' (BBC) and ''Harlots'' (Hulu / Amazon).
Her book, ''Lady Worsley's Whim'', published in November 2008, is an account of one of the eighteenth century's most sensational sex scandals, the
. It featured as BBC Radio 4's ''Book of the Week'' from 3 November 2008 and was adapted into a 90-minute drama for BBC 2 entitled ''The Scandalous Lady W'', broadcast on 17 August 2015, and starring