Press Archives - Suzannah Lipscomb

Remembrance of Things Past

April 22, 2017March 22, 2018 by Suzannah Lipscomb

'Making History' for History Today The maxim ‘show don’t tell’ is often forgotten when film-makers confront historical horrors, argues Suzannah Lipscomb, as two recent cinema releases demonstrate. David Lowenthal’s review of David Rieff’s book, In Praise of Forgetting, in the March edition of History Today is rightly scornful of the practicality…

On and Off Script

November 22, 2016March 22, 2018 by Suzannah Lipscomb

'Making History' column for History Today The challenges of writing history for television are formidable. But if historians don’t get involved, they will cede ground to those less qualified, warns Suzannah Lipscomb. It is scripting time again, the time of the year when, as well as my regular teaching and…

A Case of Double Standards

September 22, 2016March 22, 2018 by Suzannah Lipscomb

'Making History' column for History Today Despite progress since the 1970s, female historians are still treated unfairly both inside and outside the academy. Things must change, says Suzannah Lipscomb. We need to talk about sex. I do not mean the physical act, or gender as a category of historical analysis. Historians…

In Praise of the Go-Between

September 18, 2016March 22, 2018 by Suzannah Lipscomb

Archives are one thing, the public another and connecting the two is one of a historian’s hardest challenges, as Suzannah Lipscomb knows from experience. Suzannah's bimonthly column for History Today: In recent weeks I have gone from reading 16th-century manuscripts in a French provincial archive to speaking at two literary…

Game of Thrones has hacked our history

April 23, 2016July 20, 2016 by Suzannah Lipscomb

The fantasy drama is back – yet no matter how dark, brutal and beguiling it appears, it’s matched by Britain’s own bloody past, argues Suzannah Lipscomb in The Guardian on 23 April 2016. There is no disguising George RR Martin’s sources when he wrote Game of Thrones. He’s quite open about it. History,…

Divorced, beheaded died: on the trail of Henry’s wives

April 15, 2016July 20, 2016 by Suzannah Lipscomb

The history of Henry VIII and his wives can still be found around the country in the houses and palaces that they visited, and in which they lived and were finally buried. Here are some of the best places to get a feel for their lives and times – all…

Henry VIII: A King Caught on Camera?

March 9, 2016July 20, 2016 by Suzannah Lipscomb

Was Henry VIII a good-natured buffoon or an egotistical tyrant? Your answer is likely to depend on which cinematic portrayal you have seen most recently, argues Suzannah Lipscomb in her March 2016 column for History Today. Gore Vidal suggested that books have had their day: that we should ‘concede the…

Interview with The Independent

January 24, 2016July 20, 2016 by Suzannah Lipscomb

Dr Suzannah Lipscomb interview in The Independent, on 24 January 2016: The historian on why Liszt was the first Beatle, and how Henry VIII became a tyrant... It seems possible that Henry VIII suffered brain damage In 1536, Henry VIII went from being athletic, accomplished, charismatic and good-looking – everyone liked…

‘What Turns Me On’ – Sunday Mail

January 17, 2016July 20, 2016 by Suzannah Lipscomb

This provocatively named profile piece from the Sunday Mail of 3 January 2016 introduces Suzannah's favourite films, books, theatre, and the rest...

A Question of Interpretation

January 9, 2016July 20, 2016 by Suzannah Lipscomb

The public expects historians to deliver authoritative accounts of the past, yet different conclusions can be drawn from the same sources, argues Suzannah Lipscomb in her January 2016 column for History Today. I recently read an amateur review of a history book with which I am familiar, which stated: ‘It is…

An adult education

November 9, 2015July 18, 2016 by Suzannah Lipscomb

How should history be taught in schools? There should be no contradiction in constructing a history curriculum that incorporates both Britain’s ‘national memory’ and its many diversities, argues Suzannah Lipscomb in her November 2015 column for History Today. On the eve of the invasion of Iraq, in July 2003, Tony Blair…

The Stuff of the Living Past

September 9, 2015July 18, 2016 by Suzannah Lipscomb

Historians try to produce as total a view of the past as possible. Yet does our concern with facts isolate us from how material culture influenced lived experience, asks Suzannah Lipscomb in her September 2015 column for History Today? Years ago, in my doctoral thesis, I wrote about how, in…

How recent is history?

February 23, 2015July 18, 2016 by Suzannah Lipscomb

We now live in an age of speeded-up history. To what extent should historians reflect this in their practice? In short, when does history end? Suzannah considered these questions in her February 2015 column for History Today. When I was at university, the Modern History degree ended at 1945. Today the degree…

Why we still need feminism

December 31, 2014July 18, 2016 by Suzannah Lipscomb

In the New College of the Humanities' Anchor Magazine, Dr. Suzannah Lipscomb argues that we still vehemently need feminism. First published 31 December 2014. Women can reach the top: girls outperform boys at A level; female applicants to university far outnumber males. We have had a female prime minister, a female…

Does Fantasy Fiction Beat Period Drama?

December 30, 2014July 18, 2016 by Suzannah Lipscomb

In her regular History Today column, for April 2014, Suzannah Lipscomb argues that the strangeness of the past can be evoked more effectively in pick and mix fantasies than in those novels, films and TV dramas that aspire to realism. Later this month the fourth series of the enormously popular…

A Code of Conduct for Historians

December 9, 2014July 18, 2016 by Suzannah Lipscomb

Historians should adhere to a rigorous code of professional practice if they are to avoid the kinds of careless mistakes that bring their professional integrity into question, says Suzannah Lipscomb in her most important column for History Today to date (first published December 2014). I recently read the film critic…

A Matter of Judgement

June 9, 2014July 18, 2016 by Suzannah Lipscomb

An inherent tension between the past and the present becomes explicit when we make our assessments of historical figures, argues Suzannah Lipscomb in her History Today column of June 2014. Were the lampooning authors of 1066 and All That actually onto something with their list of ‘103 Good Things and 5 Bad…

Practice makes perfect

January 30, 2014July 18, 2016 by Suzannah Lipscomb

Politics should be informed not just by history, but by historians, argues Suzannah Lipscomb in her first column for History Today, from January 2014. When it comes to matters of war and foreign policy, many people run, quite rightly, for their history books. The debate last summer about intervening in Syria,…

Suzannah Lipscomb’s My London

December 6, 2013July 18, 2016 by Suzannah Lipscomb

Interview in the ES Magazine by Hannah Nathanson, 6 December 2013. The historian likes the Soho Arts Theatre Club and wants to buy Somerset House. Home is… Barnes, and I work in Bloomsbury, so my days are full of beauty. Who are your heroes? Lucy Winkett, an Anglican priest who’s…

The History Girls: Meet the women building a bright future from the past

November 3, 2013July 18, 2016 by Suzannah Lipscomb

In The Mail on Sunday, in November 2013, the article features Suzannah together with Dr Kate Williams, Dr Anna Whitelock, Lisa Hilton, Dr Cassie Newland, Dr Hallie Rubenhold, and Dr Janina Ramirez. Suzannah's interview is as follows: Dr Suzannah Lipscomb, 34, specialises in the 16th century. She is a historian, broadcaster…

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