Shrines of Gaiety

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time.

The notorious queen of this glittering world is Nellie Coker, ruthless but also ambitious to advance her six children, including the enigmatic eldest, Niven whose character has been forged in the crucible of the Somme. But success breeds enemies, and Nellie's empire faces threats from without and within. For beneath the dazzle of Soho's gaiety, there is a dark underbelly, a world in which it is all too easy to become lost.

With her unique Dickensian flair, Kate Atkinson brings together a glittering cast of characters in a truly mesmeric novel that captures the uncertainty and mutability of life; of a world in which nothing is quite as it seems.

'This is the perfect novel for uncertain times.' THE TIMES

'I can think of few writers other than Dickens who can match it' SUNDAY TIMES

'Brilliant' RICHARD OSMAN

© Kate Atkinson 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Critics Review

  • Brilliant.

    Richard Osman

  • A heady brew of crime, romance and satire set amid the sordid glitz of London nightlife in the 1920s . . . Shrines of Gaiety sees Atkinson on her finest form . . . A marvel of plate-spinning narrative knowhow . . . a peak performance of consummate control.

    OBSERVER

  • Sharp, witty and fiendishly plotted … you don’t so much as read it as surrender to it

    FINANCIAL TIMES, 'Best books of 2022'

  • Seduction, betrayal and larger-than-life characters that will have you hooked until the last page.

    THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

  • Kate Atkinson is on deliciously acerbic form in Shrines of Gaiety … exposing the underbelly of London nightlife in the roaring 20s

    GUARDIAN, 'Books of the Year'

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