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"The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister" to detail the life of an original celesbianYesterday, BBC 2 released details about their forthcoming drama based on the life of Anne Lister, including the working title, which unfortunately is not Anne Lister: Original Lez. Instead, the BBC has given the project the properly titillating title The Secret Diaries Of Miss Anne Lister. Maxine Peake will star as Anne Lister, about whom Peake said:
Anne Lister is considered by many to be the first modern lesbian. She was a contemporary of Jane Austen, and while Jane was penning biting social critique that frowned on single women riding in open carriages with men, or, you know, talking about their feelings, Anne Lister was compiling a four million word diary. Let me say that again: Four. million. word. diary. And it wasn't all business and philosophy, either. Lister's diaries are full of tales of love and seduction, and some of it was written in a code that has only recently been deciphered. Here are some excerpts:
(Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy weren't even allowed to hold hands!) Lister eventually even married a wealthy heiress, Ann Walker. In addition to being a professional lesbian, Lister was a scholar, a philanthropist, a landowner and a world-traveler. You know, standard lesbian over-achiever stuff. When The Secret Diaries Of Miss Anne Lister airs next spring, it will be preceded by an hour-long documentary about Lister's life, presented by openly gay comedy writer Sue Perkins. I've got one more quote from Lister's diaries, and this one is going to hook you.
OK, show of hands: Who will be tuning in for The Secret Diaries Of Miss Anne Lister? Submitted by on November 12, 2009 - 2:00pm. |
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News, Reviews & Commentary on Lesbian and Bisexual women in Entertainment and the Media
Anne Lister>>
I. Am. So. Fucking. There.
I hope this will get picked up by BBC America here and I'll get to see it! in the interim, I need to look up 'Anne Lister.'
Update: OK- I just did a quick search and I am indeed, intrigued. Here's some books about our girl to look up:
"No Priest But Love: The Journals of Anne Lister From 1824-1826"
Author: Helena Whitbread
ISBN#: 081475077X
"I Know My Own Heart: The Diaries of Anne Lister, 1791-1840"
Author: Helena Whitbread
ISBN: 0814792499
OK- go to your local libraries/queer/independent bookstores and check these out!
Just finished No Priest But
Thanks for the research! :D
All over this
LOVE THE BBC
Wow!
This is really exciting! Thank you, BBC!!
www.SeekingSaraSummers.com
Looks Good
This sounds really boring an
This sounds really boring an un-inspiring.
Joke! Of course I'm gonna watch this!!!
Oh yea!!
That last quote hooked meh!!!!!! hehe. Yes, yes i will be watching!
True feelings can never be put into words.
therfore when you can't explain how you feel about someone that's when you know..
same here
heehee, im totally watching, or reading her book/diary, just cause of that : P
"OK, show of hands: Who will
"OK, show of hands: Who will be tuning in for The Secret Diaries Of Miss Anne Lister?"
ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME!! PICK ME!
I love Maxine... sigh. And Anne of course;)
BetweenThaLines
Screw the lesbian part, It's
Screw the lesbian part, It's Twink from Dinnerladies! I'm deffo watching.
Maxine Peake
She also played a lesbianish character in the BBCs Little Dorrit, loved her intrigue in that.
*Raises hand* Well I shall definitely tune in.
Both hands up!!
September 1820 — Yet my manners are certainly peculiar, not all masculine but rather softly gentleman-like. I know how to please girls.
Yeesss...Im so in!!
I think this is my new favorite quote.
_________
vivono nella speranza
Lister was no Saint. Cut the revisionism.
Revisionism
Thomas Jefferson fathered children with his slaves, signed an Executive Order that prevented black people from delivering mail (insinuating that they were untrustworthy), and detested intellectual women. But that does not make his historical contributions any less significant or radical. You will be hard-pressed to find any historical hero, especially subversive figures like Anne Lister, who are faultless.
In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find a modern hero who is faultless. (See: Madeline Albright, first female Secretary Of State, over-looker of Rwandan genocide; Hillary Clinton, former First Lady and U.S. Senator, Secretary Of State, fabricator of facts about diplomatic trips to Africa; Barack Obama, first African-American president, refuses to spend political capital on LGBT rights.)
You are correct: Lister was no saint. But living as an openly gay woman in 1800, regardless of personal transgressions, is something to celebrate. That's not revisionism.
And you know her (occasionally racy) diary is going to make for great drama. :)
besides
She was even a bit of a 'revisionist' herself, finding historical precedent for her actions in against the grain readings of Lucian and Martial. I fancy they'll still have to tone down her snobbishness a fair but to make her palatable, though.
Lister was discussed in a BBC doco a few years ago called 'Queer as 18th Century Folk' (where I first learned about her). You can watch the relevant sections on Youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Cvs6Qy7rqA&feature=PlayList&p=185B6D5F10D0C95E&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=29
Terribly excited about the series! Oh, and reread the entry for 14 September in the knowledge that 'kiss' was one of her euphenisms for orgasm...
Oh. Yay.
Dearest StuntDouble and mamma viraginis: Your combined and individual brainy dazzle makes me swoon.
Thank You both, and have a lovely day.
Oh oh ohhhh I forgot to add
Oh oh ohhhh I forgot to add I read something about this in The Sun (don't judge me) and Sarah from coronation street (The girl who got inpregnanted when she was 13, slaaaag) is one of her conquests or something. Which is good, I guess :)
bbc
bbc perks
yup, exactly! bbc2 drama and a documentary presented by the lovely and talented sue perkins: great stuff!
Woop.
Ann Lister
I live in the town mention for Ann Lister, Halifax. I think that the full life of Ann Lister is hidden away from the local public and its a shame. But i'm glad that her life is more out there for people to read about and watch.
I've been to Shibden Hall where she lived many times and its so beautiful
:)
Awesome
I'm reading I Know My Own
I'm reading I Know My Own Heart at the moment (it's next to me as I type) and since I just got to the bits where she details 18th century treatment for her venereal disease, the bloom is slightly off the rose. But I'm generally very excited about this film! I hope they include some of the original text. In particular, there's an entry about one of the great loves of her life having married a man for money, and how it's basically legalized prostitution and has broken Anne's heart. Even with her frequently incomplete sentences, the passage is so beautifully expressed that I had to reread it a few times.
Jane was penning biting social critique that frowned on single women riding in open carriages with men, or, you know, talking about their feelings...
Not a fair description of Jane Austen at all! Or at least not an accurate one. Her heroines spend almost the full length of her books talking about their feelings. I assume you're referencing Marianne there, but as I read it the problem wasn't her talking about her feelings. It was her throwing herself into them without remembering that she was stuck in a situation that made her dependent on social rules, however stupid and restrictive they might be. Anne was certainly brave, but I bet it helped that she was going to be inheriting and didn't have to marry for money.
... I may be slightly overprotective of my Jane Austen.
Awesome
"In addition to being a
"In addition to being a professional lesbian, Lister was a scholar, a philanthropist, a landowner and a world-traveler."
Hmm... what's a professional lesbian? And does it pay well?
:)
Am I the only one
Who at first was misreading "Lister" as "Linster"?
This was totally on the
This was totally on the reading list for history one time in my first yr of history degree and one time in my second year. 'Anne Lister, The Haifax lesbian' lol. Lots of ppl read her one for the seminar :p
I forget most of it though.
oh no wait, i totally remember "Monday 29 January 1821 [Halifax] — I love and only love the fairer sex and thus beloved by them in turn, my heart revolts from any love but theirs."
and "September 1820 — Yet my manners are certainly peculiar, not all masculine but rather softly gentleman-like. I know how to please girls."
Go Anne!! :D Shew knows how to please girls!!
I shall have to tell my friend about this, lol.. she's doing her dissertation on victorian vibrators btw..he has to discuss that with her tutor.. who reminds me of boris johnson.. why?!
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My AfterEllen/Bridget Video Game
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Oh my god I was so
Oh my god I was so nostalgified i missed the part about Sue Perkins!
YUS
She's becoming more and more prominant! My mum always says how much she likes her. Her and Simon Pegg. And Russel Howard
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My AfterEllen/Bridget Video Game
"there's always time for a burrow..."
"We're getting fired, fired, fired, fi..