Gentleman Jack: Author of Anne Lister book credited with inspiring Gentleman Jack publishes new work on remarkable lesbian diarist

It was 1998 when Female Fortune was first published, a look at the life of lesbian landowner Lister, between 1833 and 1836.

Using Lister’s extraordinary diaries, which run to around five million words and are partly written in her own secret code, Jill sets out how Lister wooed and seduced neighbouring heiress Ann Walker, who moved in to live with Lister and her family at Shibden Hall in 1834.

When Jill pored over the diaries in the 1990s, Lister’s story was little known outside of a small number of scholarly circles.

But the airing of the first series of Gentleman Jack in 2019 changed that for good. Almost overnight, an early nineteenth century landowning lesbian became a global megastar. A formidable woman who defied every convention of the society she lived in, Lister became an icon for individuality.

The impact of Wainwright’s show has been dubbed the Gentleman Jack effect - and it points as much to how Lister’s story as ‘the first modern lesbian’ has emboldened LGBTQ+ communities, as it does to how Calderdale and the wider West Yorkshire region is reaping the benefits of global tourism.

For Jill, as with others involved in Lister research, the aftermath of series one led to a flurry of bookings. She was in demand, her diary packed with walks and talks for an army of Lister’s adoring fans.

So, in truth, she didn’t have time for another book on Lister’s diaries. So rich in material they are, that even dipping into a week of her writings - a good chunk in code, don’t forget - would be quite the task.

That question was asked to Jill on April 3 - Anne Lister’s birthday - of 2020. The first Covid-19 lockdown had left her diary looking suddenly sparse, though this video interview had been arranged with Pat Esgate, organiser of the Anne Lister Birthday Week event, which, like everything else, had moved online.

“Pat asked me if I was planning to write another book,” Jill recalls. “At that point, we were all in emotional freefall…I said no but I hoped somebody else might have a go. Then gradually over the coming weeks it became clear that this lockdown wasn’t going to end any time soon, it was going to go on and on - and I am a projects person…My only way to keep myself sane and mentally healthy was to turn to Anne Lister again which is what I did.”

The result is As Good As A Marriage, a look at the Lister diaries from 1836 up until 1838, when Lister ascended Vignemale, the highest peak in the French Pyrenees. The Female Fortune sequel, published this month, explores life at Shibden Hall after Lister’s unconventional ‘marriage’ to Walker.

“This allows us to look in intimate detail at the relationship between Anne Lister and Ann Walker because for virtually all that time they were on their own at Shibden,” Jill says. “Anne’s elderly father had died, Marian her annoying sister had departed to go and live away from Shibden and Anne Lister’s beloved aunt had also died so other than their servants they were on their own.

“It was quite an intense relationship and I think we’re often surprised by its volatility. There were silences, tensions, quarrels…And increasingly the arguments were about money.”

Lister was absorbed during that time with her estate business and the development of Shibden.

Whilst Walker was generous with her wealth, it was “never enough” for Lister, who had ‘grand ambitions’, Jill says.

“For me, the 1830s were the most interesting [period of Anne’s life]. Anne Lister commits herself to a lesbian marriage, a permanent union…What we have (in the period covered by As Good As A Marriage) is them living on their own at Shibden, living a married life. We get to see that up close and personal, and my goodness it’s very personal. And it’s also when Anne Lister is at her most powerful.”

Much has changed since Jill first worked on Lister’s diaries in the 1990s. The volumes themselves, the coded parts of which delve into Lister’s deepest emotions, private affairs and relationships with women, were recognised by UNESCO in 2011, inscribed in the UK Memory of the World Register in recognition of their substantial cultural significance.

The Gentleman Jack effect meanwhile gave Shibden Hall its record year in 2019 after visits trebled, and last year, the second series helped to generate the best visitor figures of all the pre-2019 years, according to Calderdale Council.

The world of Lister research has changed out of all recognition too, Jill writes in the preface to her book. Long gone are the days of reading the diaries on microfilm in the archives - digitisation changed all that.

The ‘explosion’ of social media has also accelerated conversations about Anne Lister, Jill continues. “So what had been a relatively quiet research space..in the 1990s has, since 2019, suddenly witnessed an explosion of fans around the world who are gripped by the diaries.”

Many of those fans will be spending time in Yorkshire this week for this year’s Anne Lister Birthday Week, a festival running from today, March 29, until April 3.

Those attending will be able to learn about and explore the lives of Anne Lister and Ann Walker, seeing the sights that were part of their lives and hearing from the mouths of researchers, including Jill, who have studied Lister’s diaries.

Among the events Jill will be taking part in are an ‘in conversation’ event tomorrow followed in the evening by a celebration at Halifax Minster discussing how Anne Lister has changed lives.

She’ll also be chatting about her new book on April 3.

“Anne Lister courageously though discreetly could live a lesbian life up at Shibden in the 1830s,” Jill says. “And thanks to her diaries, we can now know in graphic intimate detail all about it. If you watched Gentleman Jack and wondered what Anne Lister did next, [my latest] book is the perfect next read.”

As Good As A Marriage: The Anne Lister Diaries 1836-38 by Jill Liddington is out now. For the full Anne Lister Birthday Week programme, visit www.annelisterbirthdayweek.com