Chase of the Wild Goose

Late 18th century Ireland.

Two women from noble families – Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby – meet and form an intense romantic friendship.

Against the will of their families – and overcoming the many obstacles placed before them – they leave Ireland and finally settle at Plas Newydd, North Wales.

It is here they achieve fame and notoriety; it is here they become the Ladies of Llangollen.

Chase of the Wild Goose is the forgotten queer novel of the interwar era – an amiable companion to Woolf’s time-travelling Orlando and joyful antidote to the misery of The Well of Loneliness.

A historical fiction dedicated to the Ladies of Llangollen, first published by the Hogarth Press in 1936, Gordon’s Chase celebrates the search – and psychic need – for queer foremothers, and delights in finding them.

With a new afterword by Nicola Wilson.