Historical Fiction Titles (pre-1950s)

Note: a catalogue with more information (publisher/date, number of tapes and reader) is available from FAB.

Author, title, synopsis, catalogue number:

Allard, Jeannine
Legende: The Story of Philippa and Aurelie
Sometime in the last century, two women living on the coast of France loved each other. One of them posed as a man for most of their life together; they were married, adopted a child, and were very happy together. The one who posed as a man was lost at sea. A statue was erected to her, symbolizing the collective losses of their small town. Years later, when it was known that she had been a woman, the statue was destroyed. This legend is still told. Now Jeannine Allard has built from it, creating a hauntingly beautiful story of two women in love.
050

Brown, Judith C.
Immodest Acts: The life of a lesbian nun in Renaissance Italy
A fascinating 17th century detective story based on Abbess Benedetta Carlini. Her ‘visions’ made her represent the angelic spirit, she claimed. An independent woman, silenced, who turned to visions to leave her mark.
030N

Colmore, Gertrude
Suffragettes: a story of three women
A Suffragette novel written in 1911 in the midst of women’s struggle for the vote. The story of three women from different walks of life, who find a common cause in the campaign for women’s suffrage.
006

Dunker, Patricia
James Moranda Barry
At the turn of the 19th century, 10 year old James Miranda Barry enrolled as a medical student in Edinburgh, the start of a glorious career as a military surgeon. Across the empire Barry achieved fame, not only as a brilliant physician, but also as a legendary duelist and celebrated social figure. James Miranda Barry was also a woman. Her greatest achievement of all had been to “pass” for a man for over 50 years. This novel tells Barry’s story for the first time in a richly inventive and entertaining tale of dark family secrets, adultery, questioned paternity and colonial history.
243

Galford, Ellen
Moll Cutpurse
Tale of rowdy, rollicking lesbian in colourful teeming world of Elizabethan London. The real story of Moll, robber and friend of the poor, as retold by her dear friend Brigit the apothecary.
013

Mendelsohn, Jane
I was Amelia Earhart
A biographical Fantasy: This limpid, not quite surreal story of the famous aviatrix and her drunken, handsome navigator is about, among other things, the wish for solitude and the opposing need for companionship.
121

Renault, Mary
The Friendly Young Ladies
Set in 1930s England, two sisters leaving Cornwall for London are visited by a (male) doctor disturbing their domestic calm. Story of Leonora, writer of cowboy novels, and her dangerously naive sister.
038

Scott, Manda
Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle
Historical Fiction: In AD 60, Boudicca, war leader of the Eceni, led her people in the final bloody revolt against the occupying armies of Rome. This epic recounts the growth to adulthood of Breaca, who at twelve kills her first warrior. Scott takes us into a world of druids and dreamers and the magic of the gods where horses and towns and the landscape itself become characters in their own right.
189

Taverner, Jay
Rebellion
In 1715, the first year of the Jacobite uprisings, a game-keeper’s and an aristocrat’s daughter, both 16, learn of the perils of war in a changing society. They share a passionate coming of age.
167

Taverner, Jay
Hearts and Minds
sequel to “Rebellion” (Cat. 167). In 1734, when Hope and Bell are parted both women find their separation hard to bear. Enter Lucy, who is used to being cursed for her dark skin. This historical novel explores witchcraft, England’s hidden past, its inns and its ironworks and the secrets of lesbian love.
186

Waters, Sarah
Tipping The Velvet
A saucy, sensuous and multi-layered historical romance, this follows the glittering career of Nan King – oyster girl turned music-hall entertainer.
125

Waters, Sarah
Affinity
Set in and around the women’s wards at one of London’s grimmest Victorian gaols. Prison visitor Margaret Prior is fascinated by the inmate spiritualist Selina Dawas. Margaret is drawn into a twilight world of séances and shadows, unruly spirits and unseemly passions.
170

Waters, Sarah
Fingersmith
London 1862, Sue Trinder, orphaned at birth grows up amongst petty thieves, ‘fingersmiths” under the rough but loving care of Mrs Sucksby. But from the moment she draws breath Sue’s fate is linked to that of another orphan growing up in a gloomy mansion not too many miles away. This is a long, dark, twisted and satisfying story, a clever and funny lesbian take on Victorian times.
198

Waters, Sarah
The Night Watch
The story of four Londoners, three women and a young man, which moves back from 1947, through air-raids, illicit liaisons and sexual adventure, to end with its beginning in 1941. Their lives and their secrets connect, in sometimes startling ways. War leads to strange alliances.
212

Winterson, Jeanette
Boating for Beginners
Winterson has re-written the book of Genesis and turned it into a surreal Cecil B De Mille epic. Feminism and 20th century kitchenware run riot in the ancient city of Ur; Noah is Howard Hughes crossed with Frankenstein – an eccentric overseer of thriving capitalism who makes ‘God’ by accident out of a piece of gateau and a giant electric toaster.
116

Winterson, Jeanette
Sexing the Cherry
Jordan and his mother live on the banks of the Thames in 17th Century England, but there are other realities: the family who celebrate ceilings but deny floors; the 12 dancing princesses who escape each night and murder their unwanted husbands. Jordan returns to London, meanwhile his mother has been helping out in a brothel that promises a few surprises.
004

Winterson, Jeanette
The Passion
A fantasy, ostensibly about Napoleon’s cook. Juxtaposes a story of public hero-worship with a female narrative of private adoration, in the form of a tender lesbian love affair
008

Woolf, Virginia
A Room of One’s Own
Virginia Woolf’s blazing polemic on female creativity and the role of writers, and the silent fate of Shakespeare’s imaginary sister remains a powerful reminder of a woman’s need for financial independence and intellectual freedom.
110