Hallie Rubenhold

Bestselling author, social historian, broadcaster and historical consultant for TV and film.

Hallie has a passion for telling a great historical tale and has a nose for unearthing previously unknown stories from little-known sources.

The historian Hallie Rubenhold is the author of three works of non-fiction and two novels, of which, The Covent Garden Ladies and Lady Worlsey’s Whim, have inspired television dramas; Harlots (Hulu/Amazon) and The Scandalous Lady W (BBC2). Her debut book, The Covent Garden Ladies, captured the imagination of millions when it brought to public attention the history of the Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies, an infamous 18th century guidebook to sex workers.

Alongside her writing, her extensive experience extends to presenting TV documentaries, advising on period dramas, teaching, lecturing and curatorial work

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Hallie is available for TV and radio, speaking events, historical consultancy, and journalism.
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Victims of Jack the Ripper reclaim their voices with The Five

Hallie's most recent book, The Five; The Untold Lives of The Women Killed by Jack the Ripper (Doubleday in the UK, and HMH in the US, 2019) is the first full length biography of the Ripper’s victims. Disregarded by society for over 130 years, The Five pieces together their individual stories and overturns much of the mythology surrounding their lives, including the belief that all of the women were involved in ‘prostitution’.

The Five has become a Sunday Times Bestseller and has been optioned as a drama series by Mainstreet Pictures.

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Reviews

The Literary Review
Lady Worsley’s Whim should come with a warning: nothing else in the genre is close to being this good. As a historian and a story teller, Hallie Rubenhold is in a league of her own. She keeps you glued to the very last page

The Literary Review

Review of Lady Worsley's Whim
The Daily Telegraph
Scrupulously researched and cleverly structured…Among the scurrilous tales of 18th-century low life…this one is the most intriguing.

The Daily Telegraph

Review of Covent Garden Ladies
The Washington Post
Rubenhold aims to restore them to history as full human beings…Her riveting work, both compassionate group portait and stinging social history, finally gives them their due.

The Washington Post

Review of The Five
Mail on Sunday
FIVE STARS: At last, the Ripper’s victims get a voice… An eloquent, stirring challenge to reject the prevailing Ripper myth.

Mail on Sunday

Review of The Five
The Guardian
Forests have been felled in the interests of unmasking the murderer, but until now no one has bothered to discover the identity of his victims. The Five is thus an angry and important work of historical detection, calling time on the misogyny that has fed the Ripper myth. . . This is a powerful and a shaming book, but most shameful of all is that it took 130 years to write.

The Guardian

Review of The Five