The Detention Detectives

Lisa Jardine CBE is Professor of Renaissance Studies at University College, London, where she is Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in the Humanities and Director of the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and an Honorary Fellow of King's College, Cambridge and Jesus College, Cambridge. Lisa writes and reviews for all the major UK national newspapers and magazines and for the Washington Post, and has presented and appears regularly on arts, history and current affairs programmes for TV and radio. She judged the 1996 Whitbread Prize, the 1999 Guardian First Book Award, the 2000 Orwell Prize and was Chair of Judges for the 1997 Orange Prize and the 2002 Man Booker Prize.

Lis Jardine grew up in London and the Black Country. She has been a lifelong reading addict and is rarely spotted in the wild without a book, often a Golden Age murder mystery or a comic fantasy. She currently lives with her daughters in Cheshire where she combines the two best jobs in the world: secondary school librarian and children’s novelist. Lis studied English Literature at the University of Warwick and completed the MA in Writing for Young People at Bath Spa University. She has not won any prizes since a General Knowledge quiz at primary school, but in 2024 Lis was longlisted for the Branford Boase Award and shortlisted for both the James Reckitt Hull Children’s Book Award and the CrimeFest Best Crime Novel for Children Award. In her spare time, Lis likes to watch TV, learn Norwegian (2000+ day Duo streak!) and umpire her cats. Follow Lis Jardine on Threads and Instagram @LisJardine.