Queen Anne wasn’t the only royal dabbling in the dark arts of lesbianism. Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, was at it too. Marie wasn’t exactly beloved by her people; she spent a lot of money, ate a lot of food and didn’t seem too bothered that her subjects were starving in the streets. Although to be fair, Marie didn’t really have a say in the matter, as that was the job of her husband, King Louis XVI. Kirsty Loehr comes to Bristol to discuss her book A Short History of Queer Women, with Noreen Masud (A Flat Place). However, the biggest issue with this book is that there are ZERO REFERENCES! Not one piece of information has a source cited nor is there an actual reference list at the end (only a further reading list, which is not the same thing) and I'm sorry but that is absolutely appalling or something proclaiming to be a history book.

As my first foray into learning about queer female history, this book was a flop, I'd advice anyone who wants to learn more about this topic to try literally any other book than this one - and specifically one written by an actual reputable academic or similar who understands the value and importance of REFERENCING.Sorry but I'm actually so offended a history book without references even got published, you can't even get away with not referencing in high school these days. The second issue I have is the bigger one, namely the decision detailed at the start of the book which I shall lay out here in the author’s own words: i keep seeing that this book is getting a lot of hate for the humorous tone, millennial jokes, lots of swearing, and endless comments about having sex. i invite everyone to lighten up!!! I debated whether to write this review of A Short History of Queer Women once I finished it. It’s a book I have very mixed feelings about and I’m still not entirely sure that I have my thoughts straight on it, but I’ll give it a go.

i had the pleasure of meeting Kirsty in person for a pride event Max Minerva’s hosted last month— and i can confirm she is just as lively, funny, and flirty as she is in the book. I really enjoyed reading this book as I found it was a great introduction to queer history and it was told in an accessible and entertaining way. I think hearing Kirsty talk about her intentions with the book really helped to shape my reading experience before I went into the book, not thinking it would cover the vast history of queer women’s lives, but rather would be a small selection of certain stories which Kirsty has been researching since her MA. Without having much space, she aimed to tell intersectional stories to show queer women have always been around. A Short History of Queer Women is definitely going to end up on my list of most disappointing reads of 2023 and I'm so sad about that.There were a few interesting bits of information but again I failed to even fully enjoy those bits because ?? is it even true or did she just pull this info out of thin air - and yes, of course, I can do my own research but A. a few times I tried and found zero to corroborate what she was saying and B. That defeats the purpose of this book, I wanted to read it to learn not to serve as Google inspiration. Sure, lesbianism as a ‘concept’ did not exist in the past, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t use it to refer to certain women. (...) We must also remember that gender theory is a modern tradition, and that applying it to a society that did not function as such is just, well… (...) a bit daft. As part of the 2023 Farsley Literature Festival, hear author Kirsty Loehr in conversation about her hilarious and informative book, A Short History of Queer Women. Let me wrap up here then (not least because this is starting to feel less like a book review and more like an essay) and leave you with this, the list of names mentioned in the book and one final point. If the job of a nonfiction book is to make you think, this has certainly done that.