The Independent newspaper have reported that the drama will be filmed at the former home of wealthy Ms Lister, Shibden Hall which she shared with her ‘wife’, Ann Walker, a local lady of means, and with whom she tied the knot in a formal marriage ceremony.

But there was more to Anne Lister than met the eye. 

She was born in 1791 to Jeremy Lister, an Army Captain who was wounded at the Battle of Lexington during the American War of Independence.  She had four brothers and two sisters and when her youngest brother died in 1813, she inherited property at Shibden Hall (see photograph above). 

She lived there initially with her aunt and uncle and, rather than attending afternoon teas and ‘at homes’ with her aunt, she preferred the more manly pursuits of walking, riding and shooting.  This ‘tom boy’ attitude was also reflected in Anne’s dress sense – she dressed in somewhat masculine garb, her favourite colours it seems being black, black or black (maybe she was related to Henry Ford!), instead of the more usual and appropriate frocks and bonnets!  It was this rather bizarre outward appearance that gained Anne the nickname Gentleman Jack amongst the locals.

Anne enjoyed managing the Shibden Estate; overseeing building works, keeping a close eye on the management of the farm and, having considerable business acumen, she even developed coal-mining on part of the land.  On top of that she threw herself into helping the local community and took a great interest in education and schooling. 

She inherited a 15th century manor house from her uncle and took an active interest in the considerable improvements and renovations to that property. I have no doubt that if she’d been around today she would have been snapped up as a presenter for one of the popular TV make-over programmes for which Joe Public seems to have a hankering these days.  What more could you want to make your programme successful?  Someone knowledgeable on property renovation and a lesbian to boot – covers two markets in the reality TV market in one fell swoop!!

Anne was also a keen traveller.  During her relatively short life time she lived in Paris for a while and travelled to Belgium, Denmark, Italy and the Pyrenees. 

From leaving school Anne kept a diary which set out details of these pursuits, but she kept her sexual proclivities somewhat ‘under wraps’ by using a code which wasn’t properly deciphered until the 1930s.  She even used this code in her letters to her lovers Eliza Raine and Marianna Belcombe Lawton, the latter of whom was married but with whom she maintained an affair for 16 years.

Anne obviously wasn’t a ‘full on’ Georgian ‘male’ though, and showed a soft, more feminine side in her diaries.  She referred to orgasms as ‘kisses’, marking the diary with an X when she experienced one, and one entry from 1820 was particularly poetic - 

“I love and only love the fairer sex and thus beloved by them in turn, my heart revolts from any love but theirs”.

And I think Anne summed up her sexual preferences exceedingly well in another entry from that same year -

“Yet my manners are certainly peculiar, not all masculine but rather softly gentleman-like. I know how to please girls”.

In 1839 Anne embarked on a journey to Russia with her ’wife’, Ann, but unfortunately contracted a fever and died there the following year.  She was taken by Ann to Moscow to be buried but was then carried back to her homeland where she’s now buried at Southowram Church near Halifax, West Yorkshire (pictured above).

The drama is apparently to be a one-off for the BBC and will more than likely be entitled “The Scandalous Diaries of Anne Lister”. 

Something to look out for possibly next year – just hope my friends in the US get to see this, if only via the BBC website!!