Rachel Lichtenstein

Dr. Rachel Lichtenstein is a British nonfiction writer and social historian. She has written extensively about Jewish London in books including On Brick Lane (Penguin, 2007), Diamond Street (Penguin, 2012) and the cult classic Rodinsky’s Room (Granta, 1999 with Iain Sinclair), which has been translated into French, Dutch, German, and Italian, and been described as a mystery and a detective story as well as an elegy to the lost world of the Jewish East End. Her latest book The Prince of Whitechapel (William Collins, 2026) also uncovers the tale of a poor Jew with Eastern European roots who lived in East London then left behind memory traces and remains in the form of a rescued archive. However, the stories of the reclusive scholar David Rodinsky, and the penniless but charismatic Yiddish poet Avrom-Nokem Stencl are very different tales. Rachel currently combines writing and research with a post as Reader in the English department of Manchester Metropolitan University where she also co-directs the Centre for Place Writing.

https://rachellichtenstein.com/