THE GENTLEMAN JACK EFFECT

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.