Cherry Potts, Writer

Author: Cherry Potts

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 28th

    Today let us raise a glass to Jane Rule 28 March 1931 – 27 November 2007 Jane Rule was the author of many lesbian novels, and an early exponent of the happy ending, most famous for her 1964 novel Desert of the Heart (filmed as Desert Hearts), what a relief it was to find her…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 27th

    Today’s birthday cake is baked for Maria Schneider  27 March 1952 – 3 February 2011 Maria was an actor, best known for Last Tango in Paris. She was bisexual, and once  committed herself to a psychiatric institution to be with her lover,  photographer Joan Townsend, “They locked her up, and so I had to do…

  • The Actual Historic Wedding-Tea Party March 29th 2014

    A slight side-step here. It is now legal for same-sex couples to get married… but no one I know got married today, because, like us, all our friends are in civil partnerships (or they are not planning to get hitched in any shape or form). So I was feeling a bit grumpy about the government’s…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 26th March

    No Birthday today so looking forward a couple of days, let’s celebrate Louise-Honorine Crozat Du Châtel, Duchesse de Choiseul, 28th March 1737-1801 ‘A charming little fairy born out of a magical egg’ Her husband was a chief minister to Louis XIV, eventually discredited. Louise-Honorine was arrested during the Terror but seems to have survived it…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 25th

    A glass of port for today’s birthday girl: Elizabeth Vassell Fox, Lady Holland 25th March 1771-1845 Elizabeth had an affair with Henry Fox and gave birth to his child while she was married to her first husband Godfrey Webster. She married Fox immediately following her divorce from Webster and became hostess to many Whig party…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 25th

    Today’s birthday girl is Olive Schreiner, 24th March 1855 – 1920 South African author and prolific letter writer. Olive was a feminist, socialist, pacifist, vegetarian, rational dress advocate, anti-vivisectionist would-be doctor and thinker, you name it she had a position on it. She corresponded with everyone, from Edward Carpenter and Havelock Ellis to Emily Hobhouse…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 23rd

    And finally I’ve caught up! A week’s holiday does get in the way of a regular blog. Right, we’re going for one of those early cross dressers today, though it is an actual genuine birth date. Hannah Snell  23/3/1723-1792 In 1740, Hannah’s parents died and she moved to Wapping, where she married a Dutch sailor,…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 22nd

    And another date with no birthday, so let’s skip back a couple of months and one that got away: Eva La Gallienne 11 January 1899-3 June 1991 Eva was an actor and producer, born in England and who became part of the milieu of lesbian actors in Hollywood, performing herself on stage as Emily Dickinson,…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 21st

    Another no-show so today let’s raise a glass for Eugenie (Evgenia) Souline, for whom I can find no dates. Eugenie was a Russian born nurse, who had a relationship with Radclyffe Hall, living in an uncomfortable three-way relationship with Una Troubridge for the last nine years of Radclyffe Hall’s life. On her deathbed, Hall revoked…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 20th

    No birthday today so here’s someone I can’t find an accurate date for: Sarah Wilkinson aka Solita Solano 1888 – 22 November 1975 Theatre critic with the New York Tribune and as a freelance contributor to the National Geographic Society. In 1919 Solita started a relationship the journalist Janet Flanner. They travelled together to Greece…