Suzannah Lipscomb

Chronological biography | Suzannah Lipscomb

 

Chronological biography

Suzannah was educated at Epsom College (where she is now a Governor) and Lincoln College, Oxford. After taking a double first in Modern History and a distinction in her Masters in Historical Research, she won the Jowett Senior Scholarship at Balliol College, Oxford, to read her D.Phil. in history, which she was awarded in 2009. In 2006-7, Suzannah was a Royal Historical Society Marshall Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research.

From 2007 to 2010, Suzannah was Research Curator at Hampton Court Palace (Historic Royal Palaces), and was one of the lead curators responsible for creating a new visitor experience in the Tudor Palace to mark the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession to the throne in 2009. She was employed through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Kingston University, sponsored by the AHRC. For her achievements during this time, Suzannah won the AHRC 2011 ‘Humanities in the Creative Economy’ Award.

In 2009, Suzannah also organized a series of high profile events, including ‘The Henry VIII Talks at Hampton Court Palace’ in association with History Today, and a major three-day international academic conference on Henry VIII and the Tudor Court. Suzannah is now a consultant to Historic Royal Palaces and an External Advisory Member on their Research Strategy Board.

In September 2010, Suzannah was appointed Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of East Anglia. In 2011, she was awarded a public engagement grant (People Award) from the Wellcome Trust to fund ‘All the King’s Fools’, a performance project in which actors with learning disabilities play the Tudor period’s ‘natural fools’ at Hampton Court Palace, which won a 2012 Museums + Heritage Award for Excellence.

In October 2011, she took up her post as Senior Lecturer and Convenor for History at New College of the Humanities. In 2012, she was awarded the Nancy 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 (Vol 25, No. 4), and was made a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Suzannah’s latest book, The King is Dead: The Last Will and Testament of Henry VIII, was published by Head of Zeus on 5th November 2015. Suzannah is also the author of A Visitor’s Companion to Tudor England, published by Ebury in March 2012, 1536: The Year that Changed Henry VIII (Lion Hudson, 2009),the co-author of Henry VIII: 500 Facts (Historic Royal Palaces, 2009), and co-editor of a collection of essays, Henry VIII and the Court: Art, Politics and Performance, (Ashgate, 2013).

Besides history, Suzannah’s other great love is India, a country she visits as frequently as possible to practice her (increasingly rusty) Hindi. She lives in London.