Gentleman Jack
1 journaler for this copy...
A surprise birthday present - lots of post Shibden Hall visit reading.
Another of the Anne Lister biographies that were released this year to coincide with the release of the TV series Gentleman Jack. And this one, published by BBC and with Suranne Jones on the cover, most definately was released to coincide.
Not just a tv handbook though, this is a very well written and readable account with plenty of excerpts from Anne's diaries, but not too much. I can imagine it must be a herculean task to wade through all that material from the original diaries and pull out the essentials for a biography. For the definitive biography, this may not be it, and I only say this because this book focuses on a few years of Anne's life, when she's first meeting and wooing Ann Walker. Basically the time period as the first series covers. But this isn't an account of the fictionalised script for tv (and you can find out from reading this that some things have been changed as per poetic licence), but instead an historical account of that time. It's informative but easy reading. If you're looking for the uber detailed cradle to death account try Angela Steidele's recent biography.
Anne Lister lived in the first half of the 1800s, from West Yorkshire and most famous resident and later owner of Shibden Hall (well worth a visit) just outside of Halifax. She was an obsessional diary writer, which is why there is so much information about her available today - albeit all from her perspective - and an eccentric of the time, who had a more traditionally male outlook on life and behaviour, was desperate to learn and study, travel as much as she could, and was a lesbian who was comfortable with who she was, and just wanted to settle down with a wife. Tough aspirations for such a repressive time! Not that she was perfect. Forward thinking when it affected her, yet she was fine with employing kids in her mines, and was an old-school hierarchical society snob. But you've got to take it all, and she's upfront with it all and doesn't pretend to be anyone she's not - which you wouldn't with your diaries, would you?
Not just a tv handbook though, this is a very well written and readable account with plenty of excerpts from Anne's diaries, but not too much. I can imagine it must be a herculean task to wade through all that material from the original diaries and pull out the essentials for a biography. For the definitive biography, this may not be it, and I only say this because this book focuses on a few years of Anne's life, when she's first meeting and wooing Ann Walker. Basically the time period as the first series covers. But this isn't an account of the fictionalised script for tv (and you can find out from reading this that some things have been changed as per poetic licence), but instead an historical account of that time. It's informative but easy reading. If you're looking for the uber detailed cradle to death account try Angela Steidele's recent biography.
Anne Lister lived in the first half of the 1800s, from West Yorkshire and most famous resident and later owner of Shibden Hall (well worth a visit) just outside of Halifax. She was an obsessional diary writer, which is why there is so much information about her available today - albeit all from her perspective - and an eccentric of the time, who had a more traditionally male outlook on life and behaviour, was desperate to learn and study, travel as much as she could, and was a lesbian who was comfortable with who she was, and just wanted to settle down with a wife. Tough aspirations for such a repressive time! Not that she was perfect. Forward thinking when it affected her, yet she was fine with employing kids in her mines, and was an old-school hierarchical society snob. But you've got to take it all, and she's upfront with it all and doesn't pretend to be anyone she's not - which you wouldn't with your diaries, would you?
