The Highwaywoman Special
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 21 with Heather Rose Jones
This is my first “fifth week special” episode, when I have to come up with something outside my 4-topic rotation. Today we have a multi-media look at female highwaymen in history, song, and story, including five lesbian highwaywoman romances.
In this episode we talk about:
- The historic era of the highwaymen
- Ballads featuring female highwaymen (you get to hear me sing!)
- Women in history who went “on the pad” as they say, or who were rumored to have done so
- The most popular formula for lesbian highwaywoman novels
- Five lesbian highwaywoman romances, plus one bonus highway robbery incident
The various persons and works discussed or presented in this podcast (in order of appearance) are as follows. Some historic references may apply to more than one person.
- “The Highwayman” (excerpt, lyrics by Alfred Noyes music by Phil Ochs, performed by Heather Rose Jones)
- “The Female Highway Hector”, 1683-1703 (excerpt, anonymous broadside ballad, sung to the tune “The Rant”, performed by Heather Rose Jones)
- Historic highwaywomen Joan Bracey, Ann Meders, Nan Hereford
- Rumored highwaywomen Katherine Ferrers (“The Wicked Lady”) and Mary Frith (Moll Cutpurse)
- “Sovay, or The Female Highwayman” (full text, traditional ballad, music traditional?, performed by Heather Rose Jones)
- For cross-dressing motifs in literature in general:
Novels with Highwaywoman Romances
A transcript of this podcast is available here.
Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online
Links to Heather Online