Helen Rappaport

Helen F. Rappaport (née Ware; born 1947), is a British historian, author, and former actress. As a historian, she specialises in the Victorian era and revolutionary Russia.

Early life and education

Rappaport was born Helen Ware in Bromley, grew up near the River Medway in North Kent and attended Chatham Grammar School for Girls. Her older brother Mike Ware, born 1939, is a photographer, chemist, and writer. She has twin younger brothers, Peter (also a photographer) and Christopher, born in 1953.

She studied Russian at Leeds University where she was involved in the university theatre group and launched her acting career.

Career

Acting

After acting with the Leeds University theatre group she appeared in several television series including Crown Court, Love Hurts and The Bill. She later claimed to have spent '20 years in the doldrums as an out of work, broke and miserable actress'...

Writing

In the early nineties she became a copy editor for academic publishers Blackwell and OUP. and also contributed to historical and biographical reference works published by for example Cassell and Readers Digest.