Shrines of Gaiety

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.

“Atkinson has a plotter's mind: intricate, clever, satisfying. Shrines of Gaiety is all about life's tangled lines, intersections and synchronicities...The kind of fine-tuned observation that can produce an enormous, vibrant cast is quite something and I can think of few writers other than Dickens who can match it. Shrines of Gaiety is engrossing and fun, powered by subtle skills.”

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. -- Anthony Cummins 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'

Kate Atkinson is one of the world's foremost novelists. She won the Costa Book of the Year prize with her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum . Her three critically lauded and prize-winning novels set around the Second World War are Life After Life , A God in Ruins (both winners of the Costa Novel Award) and Transcription . Life After Life is now a major BBC television series starring Thomasin McKenzie, Sian Clifford, James McArdle, Jessica Brown Findlay and Jessica Hynes. Her bestselling literary crime novels featuring former detective Jackson Brodie, Case Histories , One Good Turn , When Will There Be Good News? and Started Early, Took My Dog , became a BBC television series starring Jason Isaacs. Jackson Brodie later returned in the novel Big Sky .

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