Anthony Delaney

Mother Clap’s Holborn coffee house is open to all comers, a place of companionship and community, until a tip-off leads to a midnight raid. Two women, exiled from their families, set up a utopian homestead in a remote Welsh cottage, inspiring a generation of Romantic poets. The celebrated Chevalier d’Eon, soldier, diplomat and spy, challenges a rival to a fencing match. The sweepstake is not over who will win, but whether the Chevalier is a man or a woman. Dr Anthony Delaney traces the stories of people daring to challenge society’s expectations, unearthing archives and court records to reveal the tragedies and the joys of queer life three centuries ago.