THE FIRST MODERN LESBIAN

'The details of Anne's love affairs and flirtations are there, free from suppression or euphemism' GUARDIAN

'Engaging, revealing, at times simply astonishing' SARAH WATERS

'The Lister diaries are the Dead Sea Scrolls of lesbian history; they changed everything' EMMA DONOGHUE

Anne Lister (1791-1840) was one of the most remarkable women of her time. Fearless and uncompromising, she was determined to live life on her own terms, both financially and sexually. She wrote extensive diaries in 'crypthand', which allowed her to record her life in intimate, and sometimes explicit, detail. When they were decoded by Helena Whitbread, lesbian history was changed for ever. This is the second volume of her diaries.

No Priest But Love begins in 1824. After an ill-fated love affair with a married woman, Anne Lister embarks on a journey alone to post-revolutionary Paris, a city alive with political intrigue. Here, she becomes romantically involved with a young widow, a relationship at odds with her social ambitions. Anne's efforts, firstly to extricate herself from this new 'scrape' and then to make a choice between the two women in her life, provides an absorbing sexual and social drama.