Rebecca Jennings – författare

A beautifully illustrated compendium of LGBTIQ+ life, A Queer Scrapbook offers a rich archive of histories from across Britain and Ireland. Brimming with interviews, newspaper clippings, photographs, and flyers, it traces urban, rural, and regional queer experiences from 1945 to the present. Commentaries and short essays introduce a changing queer landscape, organised around four themes: home and family, socialising and sex, arts and culture, and activism and community. The book explores domestic life and parenting, reveals the unexpected places where LGBTIQ+ people gathered for fun, highlights the importance of creative expression, and documents campaigns for justice and equal rights. Rooted in the tradition of collecting as a way for marginalised people to assert identity and community, A Queer Scrapbook vividly captures the diversity of queer and trans lives across the British and Irish isles since the Second World War.

Using a rich array of oral histories and archival sources, Tomboys and bachelor girls provides the first detailed academic study of lesbian identity and culture in post-war Britain. Described by psychiatrists as immature and neurotic, and widely ignored as taboo by mainstream society, lesbians nevertheless recognised and accepted their same-sex desire and sought out women like themselves. Challenging the conventional picture of the post-war decades as years of austerity and conservative femininity, this book traces the emergence of a vibrant lesbian social scene in Britain, centred on the metropolitan nightclubs of post-war London, but also developing across the country, through lesbian magazines and social organisations. This fascinating book brings to life the rich history of post-war lesbian culture for the scholarly and general reader alike.

Focusing on patterns of intimacy, this book traces the historical roots of parenting practices and familial patterns constructed by lesbians and same-sex attracted women living in Britain and Australia between 1945 and 2000. It foregrounds women’s unique lived experiences, as they expressed desire, fell in love, and created families against the backdrop of changing cultural, legal, and medical attitudes to female same-sex desire in the late 20th century.Including almost 100 original oral history interviews conducted by the author, Lesbian Intimacies and Family Life reveals the subjective histories of lesbian intimacy during the period, both highlighting the huge variety in women’s experiences, and tracing shifting patterns of relationship and family formation. Combined with analysis of representations of lesbian intimacy in literature, press articles, medical texts, and archival material, the book demonstrates the ways in which changing political and cultural concepts of sexuality impacted on individual and collective attitudes.With a unique transnational perspective, Jennings uncovers how feminist and lesbian networks between Britain and Australia promoted knowledge sharing and helped foster change in the familial practices of each country – such as through the adoption of reproductive technologies and alternate routes into motherhood. Through considering the rise of divorce and challenges to traditional marriage practices in the period, this book highlights how lesbian relationships provided alternative models of interpersonal relations, impacting on broader patterns of sexuality, and helping redefine notions of the family in the modern era.

Focusing on patterns of intimacy, this book traces the historical roots of parenting practices and familial patterns constructed by lesbians and same-sex attracted women living in Britain and Australia between 1945 and 2000. It foregrounds women’s unique lived experiences, as they expressed desire, fell in love, and created families against the backdrop of changing cultural, legal, and medical attitudes to female same-sex desire in the late 20th century.Including almost 100 original oral history interviews conducted by the author, Lesbian Intimacies and Family Life reveals the subjective histories of lesbian intimacy during the period, both highlighting the huge variety in women’s experiences, and tracing shifting patterns of relationship and family formation. Combined with analysis of representations of lesbian intimacy in literature, press articles, medical texts, and archival material, the book demonstrates the ways in which changing political and cultural concepts of sexuality impacted on individual and collective attitudes.With a unique transnational perspective, Jennings uncovers how feminist and lesbian networks between Britain and Australia promoted knowledge sharing and helped foster change in the familial practices of each country – such as through the adoption of reproductive technologies and alternate routes into motherhood. Through considering the rise of divorce and challenges to traditional marriage practices in the period, this book highlights how lesbian relationships provided alternative models of interpersonal relations, impacting on broader patterns of sexuality, and helping redefine notions of the family in the modern era.

Date better, raise your standards, and learn to be true to yourself with these heartfelt lessons from the Villa.“Can I pull you for a chat?” “Where’s your head at?” “Maybe we should call it the ‘friendship island’?” “Do I put all my eggs in one basket?” “Am I a mug?” These are the questions that plague the Love Islanders competing for love in their sun-soaked villa—and those of us in the trenches of modern dating. They share the dilemmas that keep us up at night as we swipe, text, and ghost our way to finding a romantic spark. The #1 hit reality TV dating show does more than offer riveting poolside drama, genuinely touching romances (and bromances), and hours of contestants in bikinis having the most mundane conversations on the terrace. It provides an unvarnished portrait of dating, with plenty to say about love, self-worth, and putting yourself back together after a brutal recoupling. Be the Bombshell is a cheeky, laugh-out-loud playbook to navigating singlehood by embracing the absolute ten-out-of-ten, proper fit, total bombshell that you are. Feeling awkward about approaching people in public? Here’s how to pull someone for a chat. Overcome by an “ick?” Maybe you just need to move beyond your “type on paper.” Recently been pied—or dumped? Invest in yourself before choosing to go out there again. In this unofficial title, Rebecca Jennings takes the most iconic and unforgettable moments from Love Island to remind us dating should be fun—not just tolerable. A witty love letter to Love Island superfans, hopeless romantics, and serial swipers, Be the Bombshell will teach you to demand what you want unapologetically and to tell the difference between what’s worth the compromise and what’s settling for less than you deserve. Your very own group chat to the best, worst, and weirdest parts of dating, Be the Bombshell steers you through the highs, lows, and the DMs you probably shouldn’t send. Are you ready? A hot new bombshell has entered the Villa! This book is not authorized, sponsored, or affiliated with the television show Love Island.

Drawing on a wide range of historical sources - court records, newspaper reports, medical records, novels, oral histories and personal papers - A Lesbian History of Britain presents the extraordinary history of lesbian experience in Britain. Covering landmark moments and well-known personalities (such as Radclyffe Hall and the publication and banning of her lesbian novel The Well of Loneliness), but also examining the lives and experiences of ordinary women, it brings both variety and nuance to their shared history. In doing so, it also explores cultural representations of, and changing attitudes to, female same-sex desire in Britain.The narrative is arranged chronologically and begins with the accounts of a number of women in the 18th century who passed themselves off as men. The C18th & C19th saw 'Romantic Friendships' between women and, later, the emergence of a science of sexuality, and the concept of the female 'sexual invert''. At the same time, 'New Women' were pursuing independent careers, a self-confidence reflected in the publication of a number of novels explicitly about lesbian experience. The 20s and 30s were characterised by parliamentary debates on lesbianism, court cases and scandals, though, with two world wars, lesbian experiences were already changing, and a newly vibrant lesbian 'scene', centred on bars and night-clubs, was emerging, supported by a growing number of lesbian-oriented magazines and societies. The contemporary period has been marked by political movements and campaigns, in which lesbians have been active, and increasingly vocal debates surrounding the 'sex wars'.