Episode Details

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 Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes, 1906
  • Phil Ochs performing his interpretation, originally released on I Ain’t Marching Anymore, 1965
• “The Female Highway Hector”, 1683-1703 (excerpt, anonymous broadside ballad, sung to the tune “The Rant”, performed by Heather Rose Jones)
  • Facsimile of the original broadside ballad
  • The Rant, collected by William Chappell in 1858
• Historic highwaywomen Joan Bracey, Ann Meders, Nan Hereford
  • “Women of the Road” by Isabelle Goddard
• Rumored highwaywomen Katherine Ferrers (“The Wicked Lady”) and Mary Frith (Moll Cutpurse)
  • “The Wicked Lady” movie
  • “The female highwayman, or the blighted lily: A drama in three acts” play
  • “Female Highwaymen” by Stephen Basdeo, 2015
• “Sovay, or The Female Highwayman” (full text, traditional ballad, music traditional?, performed by Heather Rose Jones)
  • Oldest version of the lyrics, collected by Rev. S. Baring-Gould in 1890
  • A popular later variant, with the most popular tune can be found at the Mudcat Cafe folk music site
• For cross-dressing motifs in literature in general:
  • Walen, Denise A. 2005. Constructions of Female Homoeroticism in Early Modern Drama. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-6875-3

Novels with Highwaywoman Romances

• Rebeccah and the Highwayman by Barbara Davies (Bedazzled Ink, 2008)
• The Locket and the Flintlock by Rebecca S Buck (Bold Strokes Books, 2012)
• Daring and Decorum by Lawrence Hogue (Supposed Crimes, 2017)
• The Mask of the Highwaywoman by Niamh Murphy (self-published, 2017)
• Behind the Mask by Kim Larabee (Aly