About

Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is an award-winning historian, author, and broadcaster.

She is Professor Emerita at the University of Roehampton; Senior Member at St Cross College, Oxford; and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Society of Antiquaries.

She has written and edited seven books, most recently, What is History, Now? with Helen Carr, and The Voices of Nîmes: Women, Sex, and Marriage in Reformation Languedoc, described as ‘a beautiful book, grippingly written, and destined to be a classic of social history’ by Professor Sir Simon Schama.

She received a double First, MSt, and DPhil in History from Lincoln and Balliol Colleges, Oxford, where she was a Jowett Senior Scholar. She was formerly Research Curator at Hampton Court Palace and has won awards for her work in the heritage sector, including as Creative Director of the National Trust’s exhibition at Hardwick Hall, ‘We Are Bess.’ She has been a Trustee Director of the Mary Rose Trust since 2020.

‘A fluent broadcaster with mass appeal whose academic work exemplifies scholarly rigour’

Kate Maltby in The Financial Times

Suzannah

Photo: Robert Taylor

She has presented history series on the BBC, ITV, and Channel 5; her most recent was The Royals: A History of Scandals for More 4. Other series include Hidden Killers of the Tudor Home and Witch Hunt: A Century of Murder. She was a regular panellist on the BBC Two quiz show Insert Name Here and, as a royal historian for NBC, covered The Queen’s Funeral and The King’s Coronation. She is the host of the successful Not Just the Tudors podcast from History Hit, for whom she also regularly makes films. She also presents Step into the Past, a podcast collaboration between the National Trust and Find and Past, and hosted the award-winning podcast, Irreplaceable: A History of England in 100 Places.

She was Chair of the Costa Book Awards Judges in 2020. For a decade she was a columnist for History Today and has published articles in all the UK’s major newspapers and history magazines.

Womens Prize for NonFiction

Photo by Sam Holden / copyright Women’s Prize Trust

Suzannah is Chair of Judges of the inaugural Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction 2024.