The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister

I felt the writing gave strength to the acting, I just felt the storytelling here really lent to intrigue. Everyone really did a good job, I wish it could of been a lil' longer to chill with the protagonist's last paramour but it was really nice.

This true story had me glued. To see how the women in Austen's time could pursue gay relationships and benefit financially just blew me away.

Miss Anne Lister would be considered a 'groomer' in modern society. But the fact she did what she did back in the early 19th century is a gutsy delight.

With the luxury of being rich she was able to move within society with a liberty untethered by convention.

It just shows how financial independence for women is the true liberation from the tyranny of conventional society.

Big high five to women doing it for themselves!

I agree with review by Karien Van Der Westhuizen. I am very disappointed that despite the progress we have nowadays, none of historical movies can honestly depict historical butch/ftm characters as whom they really were. I am sorry but Anne Lister was not a feminine lesbian as depicted here. I know that TV shows and movies hate butch lesbian/transgender/intersex characters but to distort historical figures again and again is unforgivable. Another example is the feminizing of Queen Kristina's hair and dresses in the movie "The Girl King". Both Queen Kristina and Anne Lister are among the most interesting masculine queer historical figures. Anne was a butch lesbian/ftm, while Queen Kristina was intersex/butch/ftm but both are re-characterized and suppressed to fit the typical Hollywood-styled cisgenders' feminine-lesbian fantasy. Having read about real Anne Lister's lives, I find these movies hard to watch. Otherwise, this movie is fine.

"I love and only love the fairer sex, and thus beloved by them in turn, my heart revolts from any love but theirs." - Anne Lister, Journals, Oct 29, 1820

The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister (2010) (TV) was written by Jane English and directed by James Kent. This film is a biography, because Anne Lister [1791 - 1840] was, indeed, a historical figure who managed to live her life as a happy and fulfilled lesbian.

Moreover, Ms. Lister did keep voluminous diaries. Only a small portion of the diaries were actual secret--i.e. written in code. Anne Lister was so intelligent that the code she devised wasn't deciphered for almost 100 years. The encoded part of the diary described Anne Lister's romantic and sexual experiences.

By a combination of enormous intelligence, class privilege, and unbreakable will, Anne Lister was able to maintain a lesbian life style in a society where such behavior was rarely tolerated.

This is an excellent film, with strong performances from all the actors, and an absolutely stellar performance from Maxine Peake as Anne. Because it's a BBC production, the production values are high and the costumes and location shots are entrancing.

Obviously, this movie was made for TV, so it will work well on the small screen. However, it is really glorious on the large screen, which is how we saw it. The film was shown at the Dryden Theatre, as the closing night offering of the terrific ImageOut: Rochester Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Don't miss this movie!