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Tonight (Monday 31 May 2010) the BBC airs The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister, a period drama  based on the fastidiously-detailed diaries of an 18th century gentlewoman. Here Kaite Welsh gives the lowdown on what to expect from the scandalous Miss Lister.

“I love and only love the fairer sex…my heart revolts from any love but theirs.” -  Anne Lister

Anne Lister has been described as the first modern lesbian, thanks to her flamboyant reputation and the encrypted accounts of her love life that were only decoded in the 20th century.

The diaries of the woman known as ‘Gentleman Jack’ chronicle everything from the management of her estate in Halifax to the STD she picked up from her married lover, Marianne. She began keeping them shortly after she left school until her death in 1840, at the foot of the Caucasian Mountains in Russia, at the age of 49, and they form the basis of tonight’s period-drama-with-a-difference.

“Her outlook must have been considered rather masculine in her time,” a 1939 biography noted coyly, and even aside from her sexuality she was hardly conventional. Often dressing only in black, she eschewed dresses, preferring to wear men’s clothing. One early diary entry offers the titillating image of Anne scribbling away, clad only in her undergarments and a pair of gentleman’s braces.

At a time when women were denied all but the most rudimentary education, Anne educated herself in traditionally male subjects such as geometry, arithmetic and the Classics. A savvy businesswoman, she handled all the legal matters for the family estate at Shibden Hall long before she officially inherited it, and she became actively involved in local politics long before women were given the vote.

The diaries reveal a woman who, although passionate, was not always pleasant. Her snobbery and acid wit made her numerous enemies, which encouraged the malicious speculation about her intense relationships with other women. “Is my admiration of this girl generally observed?” she worries at one point. She was often met with vulgar cat-calls and received hate mail for a brief period.

To a modern reader, many of her attitudes seem painfully out of date. Whilst she was more than happy to flirt with the working class women, it is clear from her diaries that she didn’t respect them. One entry confesses her surprise at meeting a potential lover’s family, saying she had expected the mother to be “slobbering into the pot.” Staunchly Conservative during a period of socialist uprising that included a move to extend the voting franchise to working men, the four million word journals also offer a vivid account into the life of a Georgian aristocrat.

But it was her love life that was dramatic – her early lover Isabella Norcliffe, described in Anne’s diaries as a tempestuous alcoholic, longed for monogamy but introduced her to Marianne Belcombe who became Anne’s lover for much of her life. The relationship was tested by Marianne’s marriage to Charles Lawton for financial security, but their affair continued. Anne’s account of Marianne’s wavering affections are among the most moving of her diaries as she gradually begins to accept that they do not have a future together.

Eager to escape the oppressive environment of early 19th Century England, Anne escaped to the continent where she climbed mountains and moved among bohemian circles. Returning to Yorkshire, she entered into a relationship with local heiress Anne Walker, going to far as to hold a marriage ceremony at Shibden Hall, much to her family’s disapproval.

The drama promises to be a riveting account of an unusual and fascinating woman guaranteed to delight lesbian viewers - as Anne herself admits, “I know how to please girls.”

The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister are on BBC2 at 9pm on Monday 31 May 2010.

Did you watch The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister? If so, what did you think?

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