Tomboys and Bachelor Girls: A Lesbian History of Post-War Britain 1945-71

by Rebecca Jennings

Challenging the conventional picture of the post-war decades as years of austerity and conservative femininity, this book traces the emergence of a vibrant lesbian social scene in Britain, centered on the metropolitan nightclubs of post-war London, but also developing across the country, through lesbian magazines and social organizations. This fascinating book brings to life the rich history of post-war lesbian culture for the scholarly and general reader alike.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, LGBT, Queer, Academic

224 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2007

About the author

Dr. Rebecca Jennings is Associate Professor in Modern Gender and/or Race History at University College London. She teaches on the history of gender and sexuality in modern Britain. Her research focuses on twentieth-century British and Australian lesbian history and she is the author of Tomboys and Bachelor Girls: A Lesbian History of Post-War Britain (2007); A Lesbian History of Britain: Love and Sex Between Women Since 1500 (2007); and Unnamed Desires: A Sydney Lesbian History (2015).

Reviews

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's always hard to review anow academic non fiction because I typically review from personal enjoyment and while these books are packed with information and incredibly useful and i enjoy them in a particular way I wouldn't say I "enjoyed" reading a kind of dry academic book. But as a non fiction it was Really good I'm probably going to go out of my way to add it to my owned collection so I always have a copy around for like personal essay writing purposes

[Confirmed Bachelor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an incisive and thought-provoking piece of research. The book is very useful for bringing together a lot of the ideas spread across oral histories and personal accounts into something more academic.

[Dannii · Rating 5 out of 5]

very good source material, Jennings was my main go to for my dissertation focusing on lesbian history!