We welcome Jill Liddington whose unparalleled research into the diaries of Anne Lister inspired the BBC1/HBO series Gentleman Jack.
How do you write about a woman who has already written a diary of over four million words? About a woman whose every letter artfully re-presents the truth? Reading Anne’s heavily abbreviated handwriting and deciphering her private coded sections daunts even the most determined of historians. In 1990 Jill Liddington, living in Halifax just a mile from Shibden Hall, began work on the 1830s diaries. Her edition, Female Fortune: land, gender & authority: the Anne Lister Diaries 1833-36 (1998, 2019), inspired scriptwriter Sally Wainwright to write Gentleman Jack (BBC1/HBO, 2019).
In this lecture, Dr Liddington explores precisely how Anne Lister has been presented by different generations of editors and historians. She traces this story through the lens of LGBT history, from 1840 when Anne Lister died, right up to Gentleman Jack in 2019.