Anne Lister, known to some as ‘Gentleman Jack’ was a Yorkshire landowner born in 1791, famous for her diaries. These diaries (four million words long) detailed her sexual exploits, mainly with her long-term lover and ‘wife’, Ann Walker. She wrote these diaries in a peculiar code combining the Ancient Greek alphabet and algebra, and detailed seduction tactics alongside comments on the weather, social events and her business dealings. As well as this, she was also renowned as a good businesswoman, and became the first woman to ascend Mount Perdu in the Pyrenees.

“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, 29 October 1820