Anne Lister (1791-1840) lived an unconventional life compared with most women in Regency England. She was unmarried, a landowner, industrialist, traveller and scholar. She wrote extensive diaries, partly in an esoteric code. Helena Whitbread spent years transcribing the diaries and what she discovered was quite extraordinary: the diaries have been called 'the Rosetta Stone of lesbian history'.

The Lister diaries are the Dead Sea Scrolls of lesbian history; they changed everything. By resurrecting them and editing them with such loving attention and intelligence, Helena Whitbread has earned the gratitude of a whole generation

Anne Lister (1791-1840) lived an unconventional life compared with most women in Regency England. She was unmarried, a landowner, industrialist, traveller and scholar. She wrote extensive diaries, partly in an esoteric code. Helena Whitbread spent years transcribing the diaries and what she discovered was quite extraordinary: the diaries have been called 'the Rosetta Stone of lesbian history'.

The Lister diaries are the Dead Sea Scrolls of lesbian history; they changed everything. By resurrecting them and editing them with such loving attention and intelligence, Helena Whitbread has earned the gratitude of a whole generation

Anne Lister (1791-1840) lived an unconventional life compared with most women in Regency England. She was unmarried, a landowner, industrialist, traveller and scholar. She wrote extensive diaries, partly in an esoteric code. Helena Whitbread spent years transcribing the diaries and what she discovered was quite extraordinary: the diaries have been called 'the Rosetta Stone of lesbian history'.

The Lister diaries are the Dead Sea Scrolls of lesbian history; they changed everything. By resurrecting them and editing them with such loving attention and intelligence, Helena Whitbread has earned the gratitude of a whole generation