NO PRIEST BUT LOVE: Excerpts from the Diaries of Anne Lister, 1824-1826

First edition, first printing. Hardcover issue. Publisher's original purple cloth with gilt titles to the spine, in the Tom Hewitt designed dustwrapper. Large folding map of Paris and 36 illustrations throughout the text. A very near fine copy, the binding square and firm with a little bumping at the spine tips, the cloth bright and fresh. The contents are clean throughout and without inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the lightly rubbed dustwrapper that remains without fading, loss or tears.

Issued simultaneously in paperback and hardcover, the hardcover issue is scarce. Edited by Helena Whitbread, who has spent years transcribing the famed diarist's writings documenting a lifetime of lesbian relationships which were written largely in secret code. Whitbread's transcriptions formed the basis for the BBC television series 'Gentleman Jack' starring Suranne Jones in the role of Anne Lister and Sophie Rundle as her fiancèe Anne Walker.