I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism.

In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero?

Simply doing your job, being a decent human being.

A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by

their own light and that light is to be recognised by others. The long history of heroism

with me, Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds. This is the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service with me, Luis Adalgo.

We're going back to 1983 and the discovery of the diaries of Anne Lister, a 19th century English woman who's been called the first modern lesbian.

A landowner and a businesswoman, Anne Lister, recorded her affairs with women in a secret code

at a time when the word lesbian hadn't even been coined.

In 2019, I spoke to historian Helena Wipred, who spent five years decoding Anne Lister's diaries

to tell her story for the first time.

Behind her back, your gentleman, Jackie Yorkshire lady of renown.

I think Annalister's journals must have been the best kept secret in Halifax for going on

200 years.

Anne Lister was born in Halifax in Yorkshire, Northern England, in 1791.

Fiercely independent, she defied the conventions of her time

and adored women, falling passionately in love time and again.

If you are seduced by Unlister either in bed or on paper, you remain seduced.

And were you seduced?

I was seduced by the romance and the originality and not least the fact that she lived in my hometown.

You know, when you come from a small town anywhere, as a young person, you think, God, it's dull here.

But once I got the analyst journals, I started working through them, the town changed for me.

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