The real Anne Lister

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Description

Women of the early 19th century are often portrayed as passive, domestic creatures who left the pursuits of business, the mind and medicine to the men. However, the recent discovery of a remarkable four million word diary by an upperclass Englishwoman named Anne Lister, has turned these presumptions on their head. Anne - a self-taught and learned lesbian, wrote in detail about her love affairs with other women and as her journals show, was a lady living well before her time. Pioneering in the industrial revolution, she also studied engineering and geology, climbed mountains and gained financial independence through the use of her land. In this fascinating documentary, comedian and TV presenter Sue Perkins takes a very personal journey to bring Anne Lister's diary to life, as she looks at a lesbian life lived two hundred years ago against a backdrop of massive social, economic and political change.