Bray, SuzanneSuzanneBray2024-04-152024-04-152024978-3-86309-973-2https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/handle/uniba/94612In 1927, Dorothy L. Sayers published, without attracting any unfavourable attention, a novel entitled Unnatural Death, in which most of the main characters are single women and some are obviously lesbians. Later, in both Strong Poison and Five Red Herrings, she depicted independent, artistic women who live either completely or partially together. In these cases, the women’s sexuality is not even mentioned, and it is up to the reader to follow the clues and decide if they are lesbians or not. In the context of the suspenseful detective plot, the women’s private affairs, and in particular those of the happy couples who live uneventful lives, remain almost unnoticed. Fifty years later, the BBC adaptations of the novels chose different options: one mini-series preserving the ambiguity of the novel while the other depicts an obvious, stereotypical lesbian couple. This chapter examines the author Dorothy L. Sayers’s attitude to female homosexuality and how she managed to include clearly or potentially lesbian characters in her fiction without shocking her contemporaries.engSingle womenlesbiansDorothy L. Sayerstelevision adaptationsstereotypes820conferenceobject