The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast

Heather Rose Jones

A show about queer women in history and historic literature, plus coverage of the field of sapphic historical fiction. Content note: May include discussions of sex within an academic context.

  1. MAY 16

    A Guide to the Sapphic Regency - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 342

    A Guide to the Sapphic Regency The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 342 with Heather Rose Jones In this episode we talk about: Demographics and economics affecting f/f couples Legal and religious considerations Friendship and romance Affection and sex The language of lesbianism Models of gender and sexuality Bibliography 18th Century Precursors Bennett, Judith M. & Amy M. Froide eds. 1999. Singlewomen in the European Past 1250-1800. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. ISBN 0-8122-1668-7 Bennett, Betty T. 1991. Mary Diana Dods: A Gentleman and a Scholar. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. ISBN 0-8018-4984-5 Beynon, John C. & Caroline Gonda eds. 2010. Lesbian Dames: Sapphism in the Long Eighteenth Century. Ashgate, Farnham. ISBN 978-0-7546-7335-4 Bodek, Evelyn Gordon. 1976. "Salonières and Bluestockings: Educated Obsolescence and Germinating Feminism" in Feminist Studies vol 3 no. 3/4 185-199. Clark, Anna. 1996. "Anne Lister's construction of lesbian identity", Journal of the History of Sexuality, 7(1), pp. 23-50. Donoghue, Emma. 1995. Passions Between Women: British Lesbian Culture 1668-1801. Harper Perennial, New York. ISBN 0-06-017261-4 Dugaw, Dianne. 1989. Warrior Women and Popular Balladry 1650-1850. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago. ISBN 0-226-16916-2 Merrick, Jeffrey & Bryant T. Ragan, Jr. 2001. Homosexuality in Early Modern France: A Documentary Collection. Oxford University Press, New York. ISBN 0-19-510257-6 Norton, Rictor (ed.), Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. Updated 7 September 2014 http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/. (Accessed 2014/09/13) Hitchcock, Tim. 1997. English Sexualities, 1700-1800. St. Martin’s Press, New York. ISBN 0-312-16573-0 Rizzo, Betty. 1994. Companions without Vows: Relationships among Eighteenth-Century British Women. Athens: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-3218-5 19th Century Sources Binhammer, Katherine. 1996. “The Sex Panic of the 1790s” in Journal of the History of Sexuality 6, no. 3: 409-34. Jennings, Rebecca. 2007. A Lesbian History of Britain: Love and Sex Between Women Since 1500. Greenwood World Publishing, Oxford. ISBN 978-1-84645-007-5 Lanser, Susan S. 2014. The Sexuality of History: Modernity and the Sapphic, 1565-1830. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. ISBN 978-0-226-18773-0 Lasser, Carol. 1988. "'Let Us Be Sisters Forever': The Sororal Model of Nineteenth-Century Female Friendship" in Signs vol. 14, no. 1 158-181. Moore, Lisa. 1992. "'Something More Tender Still than Friendship': Romantic Friendship in Early-Nineteenth-Century England" in Feminist Studies vol. 18, no. 3 499-520. Norton, Rictor (ed.), Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. Updated 7 September 2014 http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/nineteen.htm (Accessed 2014/09/13) Vicinus, Martha. 2004. Intimate Friends: Women Who Loved Women, 1778-1928. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. ISBN 0-226-85564-3 Whitbread, Helena ed.  1992.  I Know My Own Heart:  The Diaries of Anne Lister 1791-1840.  New York University Press, New York.  ISBN 0-8147-9249-9 Whitbread, Helena ed.  1992.  No Priest But Love.  NY Univ Press, New York.  ISBN  0-8147-5077-X A transcript of this podcast is available here. Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/ Twitter: @LesbianMotif Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon Links to Heather Online Website: http://alpennia.com Email: Heather Rose Jones Mastodon: @heatherrosejones@Wandering.Shop Bluesky: @heatherrosejones Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

    48 min
  2. MAY 2

    On the Shelf for May 2026 - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 341

    On the Shelf for May 2026 The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 341 with Heather Rose Jones Your monthly roundup of history, news, and the field of sapphic historical fiction. In this episode we talk about: Say hi at GCLS Recent and upcoming publications covered on the blog Traub, Valerie. 1996. “The Perversion of ‘Lesbian’ Desire” in History Workshop Journal 41:19-49. Goode, Dawn M. 2008. “Dueling Discourses: The Erotics of Female Friendship in Mary Pix’s ‘Queen Catharine.’” in Restoration: Studies in English Literary Culture, 1660-1700, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 37–60. McClain, Molly. 2008. “Love, Friendship, and Power: Queen Mary II's Letters to Frances Apsley” in Journal of British Studies, Vol. 47, No. 3: 505-527 Hitchcock, Tim. 1996. “Redefining Sex in Eighteenth-Century England” in History Workshop Journal, No. 41: 72-90 Roulston, Christine. 1998. “Separating the Inseparables: Female Friendship and Its Discontents in Eighteenth-Century France.” Eighteenth-Century Studies, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 215–31. Book Shopping Jane Austen’s Bookshelf by Rebecca Romney Recent Lesbian/Sapphic Historical Fiction The Beheading Game by Rebecca Lehmann Consider This My Witness by Madeline Klein Beneath the Quiet Valley (Quiet Valley #1) by Eleanor Foster Beneath the Quiet Valley: Two Lives (Quiet Valley #2) by Eleanor Foster The Water That Remembers (The Woman at the Well #1) by Jade Remintgon The Weight of Staying (The Woman at the Well #2) by Jade Remintgon The Courage to Remain (The Woman at the Well #3) by Jade Remintgon The Mystery of the Bitten Peach by Cecilia Tan Bone of my Bone by Johanna van Veen Miss Woodhouse & Miss Fairfax by Maisie Jardelle The Wives of Herrick Hall by Julie Lew Her Runaway Lady by B.J. Sikes For the Love of the Quest by Alexandra Ammon Parthun The Summer I Met June by Mozie S What I’ve been consuming Word by Word by Kory Stamper True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color--from Azure to Zinc Pink by Kory Stamper Murder at Sissingham Hall by Clara Benson The Mystery at Underwood House by Clara Benson This month we interview Cecilia Tan and talk about: The fun of genre mash-ups Representing diaspora The relationship of historic stories and time-travel stories Founding SFF erotica publisher Circlet Press Future projects and the joy of pantsing A transcript of this podcast is available here. (Interview transcripts added when available.) Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/ Twitter: @LesbianMotif Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon Links to Heather Online Website: http://alpennia.com Email: Heather Rose Jones Mastodon: @heatherrosejones@Wandering.Shop Bluesky: @heatherrosejones Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page) Links to Cecilia Tan Online Website: https://www.ceciliatan.com Instagram: @ctan_writer Bluesky: @ceciliatan.com

    49 min
  3. APR 18

    Mary/Charles Hamilton: The Original Female Husband - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 340

    Mary/Charles Hamilton: The Original Female Husband The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 340 with Heather Rose Jones In this episode we talk about: The factual story of Mary/Charles Hamilton Henry Fielding’s fictional version in The Female Husband The larger historic and literary context Sources mentioned Baker, S. 1959. “Henry Fielding’s The Female Husband: Fact and Fiction” in PMLA, 74 pp.213-24. Castle, T. 1983-4. “Eros and Liberty at the English Masquerade, 1710-90” in Eighteenth-Century Studies, XVII, 2: 156-76. Derry, Caroline. 2020. Lesbianism and the Criminal Law: Three Centuries of Legal Regulation in England and Wales. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-030-35299-8 Donoghue, Emma. 1995. Passions Between Women: British Lesbian Culture 1668-1801. Harper Perennial, New York. ISBN 0-06-017261-4 Friedli, Lynne. 1987. “Passing Women: A Study of Gender Boundaries in the Eighteenth Century” in Rousseau, G. S. and Roy Porter (eds). Sexual Underworlds of the Enlightenment. Manchester University Press, Manchester. ISBN 0-8078-1782-1 Fielding, Henry. 1746. The Female Husband: or, the Surprising History of Mrs Mary, Alias Mr George Hamilton. Liverpool, M. Cooper. (https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-female-husband-or-_fielding-henry_1746) Lanser, Susan. 2001. “Sapphic Picaresque: Sexual Difference and the Challenges of Homoadventuring” in Textual Practice 15:2 (November 2001): 1-18. Lyons, Clare A. 2007. “Mapping an Atlantic Sexual Culture: Homoeroticism in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia” in: Foster, Thomas A. (ed). Long Before Stonewall: Histories of Same-Sex Sexuality in Early America. New York University Press, New York. ISBN 13-978-0-8147-2749-2 Manion, Jen. “The Queer History of Passing as a Man in Early Pennsylvania.” Pennsylvania Legacies, vol. 16, no. 1, 2016, pp. 6–11. Manion, Jen. 2020. Female Husbands: A Trans History. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 978-1-108-48380-3 The full text of The Female Husband by Henry Fielding can be found at archive.org This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project here: Charles/Mary Hamilton, The Female Husband (Henry Fielding) A transcript of this podcast is available here. Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/ Twitter: @LesbianMotif Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon Links to Heather Online Website: http://alpennia.com Email: Heather Rose Jones Mastodon: @heatherrosejones@Wandering.Shop Bluesky: @heatherrosejones Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

    22 min
  4. APR 4

    On the Shelf for April 2026 - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 339

    On the Shelf for April 2026 The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 339 with Heather Rose Jones Your monthly roundup of history, news, and the field of sapphic historical fiction. In this episode we talk about: Exciting news about the next season of Bridgerton. The upcoming 10th anniversary Recent and upcoming publications covered on the blog Fielding, Henry. 1746. The Female Husband: or, the Surprising History of Mrs Mary, Alias Mr George Hamilton. Liverpool, M. Cooper. Baker, S. 1959. “Henry Fielding’s The Female Husband: Fact and Fiction” in PMLA, 74 pp.213-24. Book Shopping Kehoe, M. (ed). 1986. Historical, Literary and Erotic Aspects of Lesbianism. New York. ISBN 0-918393-21-3 Gilbert, Oscar Paul (trans. by J. Lewis May). 1932. Women in Men's Guise. The Bodley Head, London. Recent Lesbian/Sapphic Historical Fiction Stand and Deliver by Ivy Warren Romeo & Her Sister by Jillian Blevins To Love a Boleyn by Joey Evangelista Arguments Against the Cultivation of Female Curiosity (Curiosity #2) by Suzanne Moss The Countess and the Cartographer by Lyra Ashwood The Egyptologist's Curse by Georgina Kenyon Love's Joy and Sorrow Between Women by Emilie Knopf Counterpoint by Barbara Bergmann Forever Yours, Nell by Andrea Ead The Witch and the Huntress by Luna McNamara A Whisper of Bells and Prayers by C.C. González Scallywag! by K.L. Mitchell The Unruly Heart of Miss Darcy by Erin Edwards She Tamed the Lady by Judith Lynne Flirting with Disaster by Kerrigan Byrne As a Lover by Hilary McCollum At Last It's You by Marianne Marston Other Titles of Interest The Keyholder by S. Kallistos A Lady for All Seasons by T J Alexander What I’ve been consuming Queen Demon by Martha Wells Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh/em> by Rachael Lippincott Peasprout Chen, Future Legend of Skate and Sword by Henry Lien Lady Eve's Last Con/em> by Rebecca Fraimow The Rushworth Family Plot/em> by Claudia Gray Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner by Katrine Marcal A transcript of this podcast is available here. (Interview transcripts added when available.) Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/ Twitter: @LesbianMotif Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon Links to Heather Online Website: http://alpennia.com Email: Heather Rose Jones Mastodon: @heatherrosejones@Wandering.Shop Bluesky: @heatherrosejones Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

    30 min
  5. MAR 21

    Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and the Invention of Lesbian Pirates - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 338

    Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and the Invention of Lesbian Pirates The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 338 with Heather Rose Jones In this episode we talk about: Female pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read in the General History of the Pyrates The motif of “lesbian Bonny & Read” Bonny and Read in lesbian historical fiction Sources mentioned Wikipedia entry: Women in Piracy Women Pirates and the Politics of the Jolly Roger by Ulrike Klausmann, Marion Meinzerin, and Gabriel Kuhn This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project here: Anne Bonny Mary Read LHMP Entry #547 A General History of the Pyrates Works mentioned by Helen Rodriguez: The History and Lives of Notorious Pirates (1735) The Extraordinary Adventures and Daring Exploits of Captain Henry Morgan (1813) The Naval History of the United States by Willis J. Abbott (1896) The Buccaneers and their Reign of Terror by C.M. Stevens (1899) The Homosexuality of Men and Women by Magnus Hirschfield (1920) ”Anne Bonny & Mary Read: They Killed Pricks” by Susan Baker in The Furies: Lesbian/Feminist Monthly Vol. 1, issue 6 (August 1972) Mistress of the Seas (novel) by John Carlova (1964) Forgotten Women ed. By Nancy M[???] (couldn’t identify this book) The Women Pirates (play) by Steve Gooch ( Mary Read, Buccaneer (novel) by Philip Rush (1945) Beneath the Black Flag by David Cordingly Kingston by Starlight (novel) by Christopher John Farley Black Sails (tv series) Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (video game) The Pirates of Neverland (video game) Our Flag Means Death (tv series) Hellcats (podcast fiction) A transcript of this podcast is available here. Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/ Twitter: @LesbianMotif Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon Links to Heather Online Website: http://alpennia.com Email: Heather Rose Jones Mastodon: @heatherrosejones@Wandering.Shop Bluesky: @heatherrosejones Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page) Links to Helen Rodriguez Online Email: Helenrodriguez1720@gmail.com Bluesky: @ladytyler.bsky.social

    49 min
  6. MAR 7

    On the Shelf for March 2026 - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 337

    On the Shelf for March 2026 The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 337 with Heather Rose Jones Your monthly roundup of history, news, and the field of sapphic historical fiction. In this episode we talk about: Gentleman Jack (ballet) by the Northern Ballet Company Northern Ballet Company You Tube channel Recent and upcoming publications covered on the blog Mourão, Manuela. 1999. “The representation of female desire in early modern pornographic texts, 1660-1745” in Signs, 24: 589-94. Toulalan, Sarah. 2003. “Extraordinary Satisfactions: Lesbian Visibility in Seventeenth-Century Pornography in England” in Gender and History 15: 50-68 Johnson, Charles (pseudonym). 1724. A General History of the Pyrates: from their first rise and settlement in the Island of Providence, to the present time. With the remarkable actions and adventures of the two female pyrates Mary Read and Anne Bonny ... To which is added. A short abstract of the statute and civil law, in relation to pyracy. London: T. Warner. Book Shopping Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality by Anne Fausto Sterling Recent Lesbian/Sapphic Historical Fiction Rattlesridge by Mina Rose The Ink Between Us by Chiara Bellini Love and Gunpowder by Valeska Delsol Daughter of the Hunt by K. Arsenault Rivera Sweetbitter Song by Rosie Hewlett The Alchemist's Secret by Clare Marchant Salt and Surrender (The Aramanthine Sea #1) by E.S. Brandon A Change of Pace by J.A. Stevens A Comfortable Misery by Kassandra Hart The Fox and the Devil by Kiersten White Wayward Souls (Harker & Moriarty #2) by Susan J. Morris Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran The Nightshade (Hattie James #4) by Stacy Lynn Miller What I’ve been consuming Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner A transcript of this podcast is available here. (Interview transcripts added when available.) Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/ Twitter: @LesbianMotif Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon Links to Heather Online Website: http://alpennia.com Email: Heather Rose Jones Mastodon: @heatherrosejones@Wandering.Shop Bluesky: @heatherrosejones Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

    22 min
  7. FEB 10

    On the Shelf for February 2026 - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 335

    On the Shelf for February 2026 The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 335 with Heather Rose Jones Your monthly roundup of history, news, and the field of sapphic historical fiction. In this episode we talk about: The 2026 fiction line-up: “Between One Word and the Next” by L.J. Lee “Love for Love’s Sake” by Shannon Lippert “Salt for the Unmarried” by Khayelihle Benghu The Sultan’s Vetala by Priya Sridhar The Tale of Gudrun Sigurdsdóttir by Daniel Stride Recent and upcoming publications covered on the blog Reay, Barry. 2009. “Writing the Modern Histories of Homosexual England” in The Historical Journal, 52, 1. pp.213-233 Crannell, Marissa. 2015. Utterly Confused Categories: Gender Non-Conformity in Late Medieval and Early Modern Western Europe. Dissertation. Mara-McKay, Nico. 2018. “Becoming Gendered: Two Medieval Approaches to Intersex Gender Assignment” in Prandium: The Journal of Historical Studies vol. 7, no. 1. Roelens, Jonas. 2017. “A Woman Like Any Other: Female Sodomy, Hermaphroditism, and Witchcraft in Seventeenth-Century Bruges” in Journal of Women’s History, vol. 29 no. 4, Winter 2017. pp.11-34 Loveday, Kiki. “Sister Acts: Victorian Porn, Lesbian Drag, and Queer Reproduction” in Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media, vol. 60, no. 2, 2019, pp. 201–26. Larson, Ruth. 1997. “Sex and Civility in a 17th-Century Dialogue: L’Escole des filles” in Papers on French Seventeenth-Century Literature, no. 47: 497-514. Rivers, Christopher. 1995. “Safe Sex: The Prophylactic Walls of the Cloister in the French Libertine Convent Novel of the Eighteenth Century” in Journal of the History of Sexuality, Vol. 5, No. 3: 381-402 Book Shopping Wurzelbacher, Karli. 2025. Emma Stebbins: Carving Out History. Huntington: The Heckscher Museum of Art. ISBN 979-8-9925162-1-0 Lodge, Sara. 2024. The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-28660-1 Boyd, Rebecca. 2024. Exploring Ireland's Viking-Age Towns. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-03-259109-4 Recent Lesbian/Sapphic Historical Fiction Hawthorn & Bitter by Shannon K. Kelly Cut on the Bias by Susanna Bonaretti Before the Swallow Dares by Hannah Perrin-Haynes The Stillness Between Us (Voices of the Hive Trilogy) by Clara Bellweather The Language of Bees (Voices of the Hive Trilogy) by Clara Bellweather The Keeper of Tides (Voices of the Hive Trilogy) by Clara Bellweather The Language of Leaves (The Silent Companions) by Clara Bellweather The Marginal Truth (The Silent Companions) by Clara Bellweather The Stitched Confession (The Silent Companions) by Clara Bellweather Fire Sword and Sea by Vanessa Riley Sword and Silk: The Legend of Julie d'Aubigny by Maeve Campbell La Maupin : The Scandalous Story of Julie d'Aubigny by C.C. Parke The Black Lark's Oath by Tess Wilder Embers on the Moor by Giada Moretti Unfinished Story by Jade Winters The Midnight Daughters by Aeressa The Hidden Petition (Beacon Hill Mysteries #1) by Maeve McQueen The House of Hidden Hearts by Matus Zelenay E.V. Bancroft by E.V. Bancroft A Very Hamble Christmas by E.V. Bancroft Star & Thea at Court by A V Kakkad The Hidden Flower in the Palace: A Queer Court Tragedy by Shin Hwayoon She-Wolf: A Sapphic Beowulf Retelling by E.K. O'Connor The Fifth Day of Her Heart by Richard Cicay The Found Family Victory (Salvation's Edge #1) by Lady K Belonging to the Air by Avery Irons Joe the Pirate by Hubert A Slow and Secret Poison by Carmella Lowkis What I’ve been consuming Dead Dead Girls by Nekesa Afia A transcript of this podcast is available here. (Interview transcripts added when available.) Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/ Twitter: @LesbianMotif Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon Links to Heather Online Website: http://alpennia.com Email: Heather Rose Jones Mastodon: @heatherrosejones@Wandering.Shop Bluesky: @heatherrosejones Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

    21 min
4.6
out of 5
22 Ratings

About

A show about queer women in history and historic literature, plus coverage of the field of sapphic historical fiction. Content note: May include discussions of sex within an academic context.

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