Sappho was a UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

 social group founded in 1972 by Jackie Forster

Jackie Forster

Jackie Forster was born 6 November 1926 and died in London on 10 October 1998. She married her novelist husband, Peter Forster in 1958 while she worked as a TV presenter and news reporter, but divorced him in 1962 when she realised her true sexual identity...

 and others.

Taking its name from the poet Sappho

Sappho

Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life...

, it was both a social group, meeting at The Chepstow public house in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

's Notting Hill

Notting Hill

Notting Hill is an area in London, England, close to the north-western corner of Kensington Gardens, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...

 every Tuesday, and also a long-running magazine

Magazine

Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

 until 1981, Sappho was one of the early 'out' lesbian organisations, publicising its meetings in Time Out and City Limits.

Forster founded the magazine having written for the earlier Arena Three

Arena Three (magazine)

Arena Three was a British monthly publication founded by Esme Langley and Diana Chapman in 1963. It was written by and for homosexual women and published by the Minorities Research Group from 1963 to 1972.-See also:* in * Lesbian feminism...

 of the Minorities Research Group

Minorities Research Group

The Minorities Research Group was the first organisation to openly advocate the interests of lesbians in the United Kingdom. It was founded by four women who got together in response to an article that was published in the magazine "Twentieth Century"...

 which had folded earlier in the same year. Not available through mainstream outlets it was distributed at meetings and venues such as the Gateways club

Gateways club

The Gateways club was a noted lesbian nightclub located at 239 Kings Road on the corner of Bramerton Street, Chelsea, London, England. It was the longest-surviving such club in the world, opening in 1930 and legally becoming a "members club" in 1936...

. The archives of the magazine were subsequently deposited with the Hall-Carpenter Archives

Hall-Carpenter Archives

The Hall–Carpenter Archives are named after the authors Marguerite Radclyffe Hall and Edward Carpenter...

.

After the demise of the magazine the group continued to meet regularly into the late 1980s, each week inviting guest speakers such as Miriam Margolyes

Miriam Margolyes

Miriam Margolyes, OBE is an English actress and voice artist. Her earliest roles were in theatre and after several supporting roles in film and television she won a BAFTA Award for her role in The Age of Innocence .-Early life:...

, Maureen Duffy

Maureen Duffy

Maureen Patricia Duffy is a contemporary British poet, playwright and novelist. She has also published a literary biography of Aphra Behn, and The Erotic World of Faery a book-length study of eroticism in faery fantasy literature.-Life and work:After a tough childhood, Duffy took her degree in...

 and Anna Raeburn

Anna Raeburn

Anna Raeburn is a British broadcaster and journalist who is famous for her role as an 'agony aunt' giving advice on life relationship and more general life problems. She is principally known for her work on Capital Radio in London....

.