The secret diaries of 'Gentleman Jack'
How the sexually explicit journals of a 19th-century English lesbian came to light
Witness History · BBC World Service
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Show Notes
The discovery of the diaries of 19th-century Englishwoman Anne Lister, who wrote in secret code about her love affairs with women and has been called the first modern lesbian. A landowner and a businesswoman, she defied the conventions of the time and was nicknamed 'Gentleman Jack' in the Yorkshire town of Halifax where she lived, because of the way she dressed and acted. Louise Hidalgo spoke to Helena Whitbread, who discovered Anne Lister's diaries in 1983 and spent five years decoding them. This programme is a rebroadcast.
Picture: portrait of Anne Lister, of Shibden Hall, Halifax (credit: Alamy)