Suzannah Lipscomb
Suzannah Rebecca Gabriella Lipscomb is a British historian, academic and television presenter who has written and appeared in a number of television and radio programmes about British history. She was appointed to a personal chair as Professor of History at the University of Roehampton in January 2019.
Early life and education
Lipscomb grew up in Surrey near Hampton Court Palace which she credits for sowing "the seeds of a lifelong fascination with the Tudors". She was educated at Nonsuch High School for Girls, Epsom College, and Lincoln and Balliol colleges of the University of Oxford. She was awarded her Doctorate of Philosophy from Oxford in 2009 with a dissertation entitled Maids, Wives, and Mistresses: Disciplined Women in Reformation Languedoc.Academic career
While completing her dissertation she worked as a curator at Hampton Court Palace where she was responsible for organising a series of exhibitions held throughout the spring and summer of 2009 to mark the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII of England's accession to the throne. The programme won the Arts and Humanities Research Council sponsored KTP Award for Humanities for the Creative Economy. She is a consultant to Historic Royal Palaces and is an external member of their research strategy board.In 2010 Lipscomb became a lecturer in history at the University of East Anglia.
In 2011 Lipscomb was awarded an Arts and Humanities Research Council-sponsored KTP Award, "Humanities for the Creative Economy". In 2011 Lipscomb was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
From September 2011 she was head of the Faculty of History at the New College of the Humanities, stepping down in September 2016 to concentrate on research and teaching for a further year.
In 2012 Lipscomb was awarded the Nancy Lyman Roelker Prize by the Sixteenth Century Society for her journal article "Crossing Boundaries: Women’s Gossip, Insults and Violence in Sixteenth-Century France" in French History.
In October 2018 Lipscomb was elected a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
She joined the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Roehampton in September 2017 as a reader in Early Modern History and was appointed as a professor of history at the University of Roehampton in January 2019.
Lipscomb also serves as a governor at Epsom College.
Media career
She contributed to five episodes of The Secret Life Of: for the Yesterday Channel. The series was designed to give "tabloid treatment of historical icons" and includes an episode where Lipscomb and co-host Lucy Worsley "revel in these raunchy titbits" about Henry VIII's love life. Lipscomb also contributed to Time Team, Series 20, for Channel 4.With Joe Crowley she presented Bloody Tales of Europe and Bloody Tales of the Tower for the National Geographic Channel.
In May 2013 Lipscomb appeared in The Last Days of Anne Boleyn on BBC Two with other historians and historical novelists, including David Starkey, Philippa Gregory and Hilary Mantel.
Lipscomb co-presented I Never Knew That About Britain, for ITV. The series was described by The Independent's critic Ellen Jones as "too busy adorning the obvious with bunting to uncover anything truly fascinating".
She wrote and presented a two-part documentary Henry and Anne: The Lovers Who Changed History for Channel 5. The Daily Telegraph critic Jake Wallis Simons called it "dumbed-down tommyrot". However, the Radio Times said "Dr Suzannah Lipscomb can manage the story of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn perfectly well all by herself ". This was re-presented in January 2019 on Channel 5 as "Queen for a Thousand Days".
She wrote and presented Hidden Killers of the Victorian Home for BBC Four, as well as the follow up shows New Hidden Killers of the Victorian Home, Hidden Killers of the Edwardian Home, and Hidden Killers of the Tudor Home. Clive James writing in the Daily Telegraph gave Hidden Killers of the Edwardian Home a positive review, "principally because Ms Lipscomb was almost as fascinating as her subject". In May 2016, she wrote and presented Hidden Killers of the Post-War Home, again for BBC Four.
In October 2015 Lipscomb wrote and presented Witch Hunt: A Century of Murder, a two-part documentary for Channel 5. On 27 October 2015, Lipscomb joined Matthew Sweet, Marina Warner, Larushka Ivan-zadeh, Claire Nally and Catherine Spooner, to talk about witchcraft and witch-hunting, in history, film, and politics on the BBC Radio programme Free Thinking.
In January 2016, and January 2017, she appeared in two episodes of the BBC Two comedy panel game show Insert Name Here. Between November 2017 and January 2018 she again participated in a further four episodes of the same programme. And again in January/December 2018/19 In April 2016, she co-wrote and co-presented, with Dan Jones, Henry VIII and His Six Wives, which was shown on Channel 5. On 13 December 2016 she appeared as a contestant on Series 6 of Celebrity Antiques Road Trip, partnered with David Harper, against Kate Williams and Catherine Southon.
In January 2017 Lipscomb spoke about how C.S. Lewis had inspired her life on BBC Radio 4's Great Lives series, together with Malcolm Guite. That month Lipscomb appeared on BBC Radio 4's Today programme to discuss the Archbishop of Canterbury's expected apology for the violence that followed the Protestant Reformation to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
In May 2017, she co-wrote and co-presented a three-part docu-drama, with Dan Jones, Elizabeth I, for Channel 5. For three consecutive evenings in May and June 2017 Lipscomb, with Dan Jones and engineer, Rob Bell presented The Great Fire for Channel 5, a series in which the three presenters walked the actual route the Great Fire of London took across the city. In June/July 2017 Lipscomb was the week's guest on the BBC Radio 3 programme Essential Classics where she selected her favourite classical pieces of music for presenter Rob Cowan.
Between 2017 and 2019 Lipscomb has been a regular contributor to Dictionary Corner on Countdown with Susie Dent. On 13 January 2018 Lipscomb appeared as a contestant on an academic version of Pointless Celebrities partnered with performance poet John Cooper Clarke where they reached the head-to-head round.
In March and April 2018, she appeared on Channel 5's Secrets of the National Trust with Alan Titchmarsh. In Series 2, Episode 2 on 6 March 2018 she visited Cliveden Conservation to meet the stonemasons restoring Stowe's statues, and in Episode 6 on 3 April 2018 she visited County Down where she learnt about Castle Ward's starring role in the TV adaptation of Game of Thrones and made swords with the show's armourer.
In March 2018 Lipscomb began a series of podcasts for Historic England entitled Irreplaceable: A History of England in 100 Places. The podcast, presented by Lipscomb and journalist Emma Barnett, was awarded silver in the 'Best Branded Content' category of the British Podcast Awards on 19 May 2018. Lipscomb presented The Tsar and Empress: Secret Letters on Australia's SBS TV Channel in April 2018, and on the in May 2018.
Over four weeks in March 2019, Lipscomb, with Dan Jones and engineer Rob Bell, presented London: 2000 Years of History, for Channel 5.
Lipscomb was a judge of the biography and memoirs section of the Costa Book Awards, and the Costa Book of the Year in 2019.