British historian Hallie Rubenhold is the author of The Five, a social history of the women murdered by Jack the Ripper, which won the 2019 Baillie Gifford prize and is out now in paperback (Black Swan, £9.99). Born in Los Angeles, she studied history in the US before attending the University of Leeds. Her 2005 book The Covent Garden Ladies, about a notorious guidebook to Georgian prostitutes, inspired the TV series Harlots, while her next book, The Scandalous Lady W, was adapted into a BBC drama. Rubenhold lives in London with her husband.

1. TV
Succession

In the two-and-a-half weeks it took me to ravenously consume both seasons of this masterly series of Shakespearean proportions, I wouldn’t shut up about it. The writing and the characters possessed me. When I wasn’t in front of the TV, I was lost in my thoughts about the Roys, weighing up their deficits against the small deeds that occasionally redeemed them. The fictional story of this all-mighty, super-rich family is such a universal one throughout history – they could be the Borgias or the Gettys. Cousin Greg, the poor, backward relation come to seek his fortune, and Tom, the bourgeois fiance desperate to impress the patriarch, play like two characters from a Restoration comedy. It’s utterly brilliant.

2. Place
Lima

In November, I had the life-enriching experience of visiting Peru with the Hay festival and the British Council. I found Lima, with its mix of Spanish and Chinese cultural influences and its pile of Inca ruins at the heart of the city, more fascinating than I could have imagined. Having grown up in LA, I often pine for the warm, salty Pacific and the cool morning fogs of spring. Lima obligingly delivered this, along with some fabulous ceviche. I was sent back to London with a newly acquired pisco sour habit, a detailed knowledge of alpaca wool production and some wonderful memories.

3. Book
Charles Booth’s London Poverty Maps

I have fairly eclectic and esoteric taste in books. Quite a lot of what is on my e-reader is out of print and deeply unfashionable; obscure 18th-century autobiographies and extended pieces of Victorian journalism. On my bedside table I have a book about women who participated in the California gold rush next to a cookery book from a restaurant in Dingle. This is why Thames and Hudson’s large, colourful reprint of Charles Booth’s poverty maps spoke to me. I am an incorrigible history nerd and this volume reproduces some of the social reformer’s work charting poverty along London’s late Victorian streets. The book also includes some fascinating photos of street life, as well as contributions from modern historians exploring the experiences of the urban poor.

4. Exhibition
Tutankhamun, Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh (Saatchi Gallery)

At the age of seven, I was taken to see the touring exhibition of Tutankhamun’s treasures at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This experience prompted me to write a play about the boy-pharaoh’s life which was then performed by my primary school. I suppose this was my first foray into the world of “public history”. Now that the exhibition is back and on my doorstep, I’m really looking forward to revisiting these artefacts and examining them with the eye of a fully fledged historian.

5. Restaurant
Coal Office, London

Everything about Coal Office is a feat of design, from Tom Dixon’s cutlery to the rough-textured, urban chic interiors. It’s a painfully cool place in King’s Cross, that hip new corridor of coolness. The food, served up by Assaf Granit (of the Palomar) is a perfect piece of heaven. They call it “modern Mediterranean”, but it travels a bit further afield creatively than that. Anyone who thinks the humble beetroot isn’t capable of inspiring rapture hasn’t tried From Russia With Love, one of their signature dishes.

6. Film
Bombshell

I have a particular weakness for corporate dramas. So many egos and conflicting ambitions sealed into a workspace creates a type of electric tension. When you throw a whistleblower into the mix, the environment can become explosive. I enjoyed watching three merciless women, Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron), Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) and the fictional Kayla Pospisil (Margot Robbie) take down Roger Ailes (John Lithgow), the former head of Fox News. His abuse of female employees was appalling, but the film also depicted an equally vile workplace culture at Fox which pitted women against one another. Watching them attempt to correct these wrongs while adamantly refusing to be labelled feminists… it was quite a feat of rightwing gymnastics. All three female leads put in stunning performances.