I had never heard of Anne Lister, the "first modern lesbian," but this report on a forthcoming BBC costume drama about her life includes this amazing capsule summary: "Lister chronicled her pioneering life and wide-ranging travels as well as her relationships in an at times sexually charged four million word collection of diaries which she kept until her premature death in 1840 aged 51 after being bitten by an insect while travelling in the Caucasus Mountains."