Helen Rappaport
Born in Bromley, England, Helen Rappaport was an actress who appeared on British TV and in films until the early 1990s, then focused on writing. She has published a number of historical works, including Joseph Stalin, No Place for Ladies, and The Last Days of the Romanovs. She is also the author of the Victorian true-crime story Beautiful for Ever and coauthor, with William Horwood, of Dark Hearts of Chicago. A fluent Russian speaker and a specialist in Russian history and nineteenth-century women's history, Helen has become well known as a Russian translator in the theater and has translated all seven of Anton Chekhov's plays.