The Gentleman Jack Effect: Lessons in Breaking Rules and Living Out Loud

by Janet Lea, Vivian Swift (Illustrator)

Overview

Until HBO/BBC's 2019 period drama Gentleman Jack, English landowner, world traveler, prolific diarist, and unapologetic lesbian Anne Lister was a well-kept secret. So was Ann Walker, the wealthy heiress who married her-in 1834. Now the true story of how these two daring souls rose above 19^th century British social conventions is an inspiration to others yearning to be their most authentic selves.

The ground-breaking LGBT TV series-based on Lister's diaries-has electrified gay women worldwide and ignited an extraordinary passion among its fans to emulate and honor the infamous and little-known historical figure. Author Janet Lea has gathered 62 compelling stories from interviews with dozens of women in 16 countries to create an oral history of the global phenomenon she calls the "Gentleman Jack effect." Their first-person narratives detail the epic transformations motivated by the Annes, from coming out and fully embracing their lesbian identity to displaying their newfound confidence in profound ways.

The Gentleman Jack Effect: Lessons in Breaking Rules and Living Out Loud introduces readers to:

• Recruits in the volunteer army of "codebreakers" taking on the monumental task of transcribing the five million words of Lister's explicit diaries, including more than one million words written in her secret code

• The homebodies who became world travelers as they set out on pilgrimages to walk, hike, and climb in Anne Lister's footsteps from the Yorkshire moors to the French Pyrenees and Swiss Alps, all the way to the Russian steppes

• The introverts morphing into social media mavens and creating a global community of soul mates in the name of Gentleman Jack

• The silent sufferers defying cultural stigmas to declare themselves, à la Anne Lister, "out"-loud, proud, and ready for life and love on their own terms

The Gentleman Jack Effect deftly chronicles how a prime time television drama spurred the creation of an international lesbian community, mobilized LGBTQ+ change agents and allies, sparked a movement to update queer history, and emboldened women, regardless of whom they love, to throw off society's restraints to live fearlessly, joyfully, and fully be themselves. Its timely lessons in risk-taking and self-acceptance are invaluable for every woman today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780962183713
Publisher:	Laurel House Press
Publication date:	09/22/2021
Pages:	354
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.79(d)

About the Author

Janet Lea has sold hula hoops, organized armadillo races, and been suspected of being a CIA spy. She's lived in a VW van with a beagle puppy, dodged military checkpoints in Tibet, and camped out on the Great Wall of China. There's a rumor that Misadventure is her middle name, but it's actually Marie. A native Texan and a fan of big, as an ex-advertising executive she once brought the world's largest seat belt to stretch around the Alamo, and her inspirational stories for public service causes were featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show...twice. Having done her bit to make the world a better place, Janet now writes full time. The Gentleman Jack Effect: Breaking Rules and Living Out Loud is her first book. She and her wife live in Santa Fe, New Mexico near a dry stream bed inhabited by a coyote they call Sneak.

Vivian Swift is the author and illustrator of three books. When not traveling, she lives with her husband in Too Many Cats Manor, a 100-year-old house on the Long Island Sound in New York.

Editorial Reviews

2022-04-14
Lea’s debut nonfiction work explores the dedicated fan base of an offbeat TV character.

The author writes that she was not expecting to fall in love with the lesbian protagonist of the BBC and HBO drama Gentleman Jack, based on the life of a real 19th-century historical figure: “I was stupefied and embarrassed because Anne Lister was, after all, dead,” Lea writes. “But far more mortifying and unexpected was my morphing into a 70-something fangirl.” The series, created by Sally Wainwright and starring Suranne Jones as the eponymous businesswoman, traveler, diarist, and top-hat wearer, has won dedicated fans around the world, particularly among lesbian viewers. This book collects the experiences and reflections of these “Lister Sisters” (a group that includes more than a few men), detailing their attachment to the show and the fascinating person who inspired it. The series, the author says, not only provided welcome lesbian representation on television, but also catalyzed new levels of self-esteem among its fans, spawning daring sartorial choices, career changes, and pilgrimages to Lister’s hometown of Halifax in West Yorkshire, England. Lea interviews and profiles more than 60 of these fans; most hail from the United States or the United Kingdom, but there are dispatches from such far-flung locales as New Zealand, India, the Philippines, Belgium, Singapore, Portugal, Serbia, and Brazil. The fan base’s sense of the community comes up often in Lea’s interviews, as revealed in this comment by Johanna Pihlajamäki of Hämeenkyrö, Finland: “I just kept thinking how can there be this kind of group in this world….I’m in about 30 other groups, and there is something negative going on all the time. And then there’s the Lister Sisters with hundreds of people, and no one is aggressive and no one is ever disrespected.” Swift’s beautiful black-and-white illustrations effectively evoke the series’ period style. The book will be of greatest interest to readers who love the show, of course, but the work also succeeds as a rumination on lesbian representation in pop culture and the ways that fan communities create new opportunities for connection.

A rich, heartwarming homage to a groundbreaking series.

Kirkus Reviews