Joan Bakewell is an author, journalist and broadcaster.

She was made a CBE is 1999 and Dame in 2008. In January 2011 she took her seat in the House of Lords as Baroness Bakewell of Stockport. In April 2013, she became President of Birkbeck College.

Joan is also an author and playwright and has received a Humanist of the Year award for services to humanism.