Why Gentleman Jack's hero requires an alternative look

Yorkshirewoman Anne Lister defied conventions in love and business during the 19th century. But while the recent BBC TV dramatisation starring Suranne Jones captured her spirit and created a gay icon, a new book suggests the truth is far more complicated

- By Anthony Delaney

PORTRAYED by Suranne Jones in the hit television series Gentleman Jack which brought her story out into the open, Anne Lister is today remembered as a lesbian trailblazer.

Her revelatory secret diaries, written partly in code, capture the details of her loves, her ambitions and her unapologetic refusal to live by the restrictive expectations that early 19th-century society imposed upon women.

For this, she has become something of an icon and her life, which was dramatised in the 2019 BBC series, acts as proof that “queer” people have always existed. In recent years, therefore, it’s fair to say that Anne Lister has become a bit of an LGBTQ+ hero.

But the truth about Lister is more complicated and, in many ways, even more fascinating than that. While she was undeniably bold and groundbreaking, my new book, Queer Georgians, also uncovers a more troubling, overlooked aspect to her history.

To put it plainly, Anne Lister could be domineering, manipulative, ruthless and cruel. Not just in business, as we might expect, but in her personal life, too.

Lister often cast herself in the role of the Yorkshire gentleman, striding through life with confidence, ambition and entitlement. Her apparent “manliness” did not go unnoticed by her contemporaries either and she endured verbal attacks as a result.

On June 28, 1818, for example, a group of delinquents confronted her, shouting, “That’s a man...Does your c*ck stand?” Bullies, and homophobic ones it seems, were just as half-witted in 1818 as they are today.

Yet Lister's prowess could all too easily move into what we now call “toxic masculinity”. In her remarkable determination to expand her estates and secure influence as a staunch Tory landowner, Lister often pressed ahead with little concern for those who crossed her path.

Nowhere is this clearer than in her relationship with the wealthy Yorkshire heiress Ann Walker, portrayed by Sophie Rundle in the BBC series.