Hallie Rubenhold

Actually, interestingly, this was the part of writing my book that I thought I was going to find quite dull.

And in fact, I found quite fascinating because Ethel tries to reinvent herself.

And it's kind of hard to reinvent yourself when you were once the most scarlet woman in the world.

She was in every newspaper around the world as this woman who ran off with Crippen.

And she changed her name to Ethel Harvey.

And she had to go back to being a lady typist again.

But I think there was something about this murder, this period of her life, which was the most awful and also the most exciting thing ever to have happened to her.

And also, you know, she's carrying the burden of what she knew with her in secret.

And she goes and tries to move to Canada.

And she has a nervous breakdown when she's in Toronto.

literally has an episode of what is called disassociative amnesia, which is when you can't even remember who you are.

Apparently, this is quite common with people who have committed murder.

And she was carrying a lot of stuff with her and then has to return to England, lives with her sister for a while, and just is in a state of complete nervous collapse, has a total nervous breakdown, can't even leave her room.

And eventually she gets better.

She has several episodes of paranoia where she believes people are trailing her, where she believes the police are going to come and arrest her at any moment.

Bearing in mind she also stole money from Belle's bank account, she posed as Belle Elmore and took about nearly £200 out of a bank account, drained a bank account.

You know, this was a profound act of fraud which would have seen her in prison doing hard labour.

Ethel never, ever forgets this, but at the same time,

eventually quietly just disappears into anonymity and becomes Ethel Smith.

She marries a man called Stanley Smith and lives in South London.