Hallie Rubenhold writes about women whose lives have been overshadowed by a famous crime or scandal. If her books have made you stop and reconsider a story you thought you knew, a festival conversation is a chance to spend longer with those people and the historian who has brought them back into view.
Quick facts
Best known for
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
Genre or subject
Social history and historical true crime
Latest book
Story of a Murder (2025; paperback 2026), Doubleday / Black Swan
Rubenhold is a social historian, author and historical consultant whose work centres on overlooked lives. Her writing includes historical fiction as well as non-fiction. The names that dominate a familiar crime story are often the men’s; her books make room for the women’s work, friendships, ambitions and survival.
Her biography of the women killed by Jack the Ripper won the 2019 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction and was shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize. The award-winning book treats its subjects as individuals, with lives extending far beyond the circumstances of their deaths. That attention to the person is an inviting starting point for a reader interested in social history.
Her latest non-fiction book was first published in March 2025 and appeared in paperback in 2026. It returns to the Crippen case through the women around it. Earlier work has reached television audiences: the book about Georgian sex workers informed Harlots, while Lady Worsley’s Whim became The Scandalous Lady W. Adaptation is another way readers may have encountered her historical worlds.
Where to start with their books
The Five
This follows Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane as people with jobs, relationships and histories of their own. Their shared place in the Ripper story is the beginning of the inquiry, not the extent of their lives. Choose it for Victorian social history seen through five women.
The Scandalous Lady W
A highly public Georgian divorce opens a story of Lady Worsley, her husband and her lover. It gives a reader another route into Rubenhold’s interest in the gap between public scandal and a woman’s life, in the historical work behind the television drama.
The Covent Garden Ladies
The publication of Harris’s List connects a poet, a waiter and a celebrated courtesan in eighteenth-century London. This book follows the people and money behind that notorious directory, taking readers into the social world that later inspired television’s Harlots.
Festival appearances
For tickets, use the host festival’s official box office. Confirm the date, venue and access details before paying.
Between those visits, Bath’s Feminist History Forgotten Voices brought her to the Guildhall on 16 May. A book-centred talk could take listeners into one case; the Bath conversation opened the wider question of whose lives survive in accounts of the past. For readers who care about women’s history, both subjects lead directly into the concerns of her writing.
Where to see them next
No 2027 appearances announced yet. Check the festival guides for programme dates.
Plan your trip
Historical crime can be distressing even when you already know the outline. Give yourself space after the talk before moving to another session, and read any content guidance if that affects your choice. A visit with a fellow history reader can leave you with a good conversation about the people behind the familiar headlines.
Do I need to know the Crippen case before attending?
No. The attraction of Rubenhold’s work is often discovering how much a familiar headline has left out. You can begin with the book or hear her introduce the people first, then follow the account in your own reading.
Are these fiction or history events?
Use the festival links on Hallie Rubenhold’s profile for the event’s own ticket and audience guidance.
How do I buy a ticket to hear Hallie Rubenhold?
Use the festival links on Hallie Rubenhold’s profile for the event’s own ticket and audience guidance.
Which book is best for a new reader?
Choose the subject that interests you most: women in Victorian London, a Georgian marriage scandal, or the people behind an Edwardian murder. The reading suggestions below offer these different ways into the same historian’s work.
