The Well Of Loneliness

Radclyffe Hall was a Great English eccentric. She is most famous today for 'The Well of Loneliness ' which she wrote in 1928.

A novel about lesbian love 'Congenital inverts' the book was suppresed both here and in the U.S., and caused Radclyffe to be put on trial under the obscene publications act.

Vita Sackville West and Virginia Woolf, both of whom had had lesbian affairs, refused to be witnesses; Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote her supportive letters.

Based on her own life, The Well of Loneliness tells the story of Sir Philip and Lady Gordon and their daughter who they baptise Stephen.

It becomes apparent that Stephen is not like the other girls : she learns to fence and hunt, wears breeches and longs to cut her hair.

When she reaches maturity she falls passionately in love with another woman.

The book was banned as obscene after a notorious and dramatic trial.

It remains a classic story of Lesbian love.