A song written about famous Yorkshire diarist Anne Lister has
become an unlikely internet hit, this month - after being picked up
by Radio 2.
The track - entitled Gentleman Jack - is taken from the latest
O'Hooley and Tidlow album The Fragile, which was released earlier
this year on independent label No Masters.
Detailing the life and secret diaries of the landowner, it has
received critical acclaim - with four-star reviews from The
Guardian, Mojo and Uncut.
But in the past seven days it has gone viral after being featured
on Mike Harding's Radio 2 folk show, BBC Radio 3 and 6 Music.
According to Belinda O'Hooley, one half of the duo, the song has
even garnered a reaction from a woman who wrote the biography of
Lister.
"We have been approached by a woman called Helena Whitbread who
wrote the biography of Anne and also has spent the last 30 years
using the deciphered code to transcribe Anne's 4 million words
worth of diaries," she told DIVA.
"She is a mine of information and is very excited that Anne
Lister's life has now made its way into a song."
She added: "We think it is a very empowering story for
lesbians."
Lister was an accomplished and wealthy Yorkshire landowner who
inherited the Lister family estate - Shibden Hall - from her uncle
in 1826.
During her life she wrote a vast coded diary, where she secretly
wrote about her relationships with women.
Last year, Lister was played by actress Maxine Peake in a BBC
dramatisation of her life.
