The Secret Diaries of Anne Lister
Anne Lister (1791-1840) lived a most extraordinary and improbable life. She was a beacon of independence in an era when women were considered to be property. She kept a diary all her life that eventually topped out at 6,600 pages (four million words) which is twice the length of Samuel Pepys diaries. These 23 volumes, which can be found at the Halifax Central Library, are an invaluable record, giving the world a peek into what life was like for women in Northern England. The diaries detail her emotions, her day-to-day activities, her financial situation, local and national news, even a daily weather report and the books she was reading. But parts of the diaries were written in a cryptic code of Greek letters and algebraic symbols that concealed aspects of her life that were considered controversial for over a hundred years. Anne’s life was the antithesis of the delicate and refined heroines found in Jane Austen’s novels. Not only was she a shrewd landowner, pioneering industrialist, i...