They call Anne Lister the first modern lesbian. It takes a lot of courage to live openly in this day in age, so being completely unapologetic in 1832 took serious balls.
But what Lister is now most famous for is being the first woman in Britain to take a wife. Not legally, of course, but the two did exchange rings and vows under knowing silence in a church in England on Easter in 1834. For that, she is a modern-day hero. She was also known as a prolific diarist, detailing every waking moment of her life, but all the juicy stuff - the sexual and scandalous - was hidden from prying eyes by the use of intricate code comprised of Greek alphabet, zodiac, punctuation, and mathematical symbols.
Her incredible delivery and flawless character work makes it impossible to imagine her as anyone other than Anne Lister. Her arched sarcastic eyebrow appears to be a character on its own, bringing levity and brightness to what Dickens often painted as a dreary time.