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Shrines of Gaiety

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Shrines of Gaiety

By: Kate Atkinson
Narrated by: Jason Watkins
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About this listen

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

 20th Century Biographical Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Thriller & Suspense World War I Fiction Biography Mystery England War

Critic reviews

Brilliant.
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)
Sharp, witty and fiendishly plotted ... you don't so much as read it as surrender to it
Seduction, betrayal and larger-than-life characters that will have you hooked until the last page.
Kate Atkinson is on deliciously acerbic form in Shrines of Gaiety ... exposing the underbelly of London nightlife in the roaring 20s
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.
This book is one to savour, for the energy, for the wit, for the tenderness of characterisation that make Atkinson enduringly popular.
As vividly filthy, populous, dangerous as anything described by Dickens, but writing is closer to Thackeray's... Atkinson is a novelist of unrivalled immediacy, authority, and skill.
Kate Atkinson is simply one of the best writers working today, anywhere in the world...she's a global treasure... [Shrines] is set during Jazz Age London, in all its fizzy madness and desperation for the new, the better, the hustle. Atkinson has a magician's ability to switch a reader's mood within a few paragraphs, and as dark as her stories can get, within them always shines a beacon of humanity.
Atkinson is a thoughtful writer with an astute understanding of 20th-century social history. This is the perfect novel for uncertain times, when comfort of a particularly English and nostalgic stripe is required.
All stars
Most relevant
Oh how I love Kate Atkinson books, always very droll and a bit quirky. The first few chapters are a tad confusing, but then it gets into its stride. As with most of her books the mother Nellie is not in the least maternal, also we have detective Frobisher, shades of a 1920’s Jackson Brodie ( just my opinion ) the book has the usual mix of droll humour and underlying sensitivity. Interesting 1920’s period setting and the author explains more at the end.

I love Kate Atkinson!!

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such a good story and a great narrator. the period in which it is set is one of my favourites and each character is a winner!

brilliant

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I really enjoyed this book because the characters are so well drawn. Nothing jarred and their motivations and actions flowed well. I googled roaring 20s to see what the clubs looked like. It seems to me that not much has changed in a century

I cared about all the characters

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A melting pot of detailed characters and events.
I found myself living the moments as they unfolded.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

A perfect period piece for an Amazon Series.

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Engaging from the very first paragraph until the very last line. What I loved about this book aside from the wonderful glimpses it provides of life after the Great War, were the parallel stories of the characters. Their longings, hopes, opportunities missed, opportunities seized, their failings, their triumphs, the inevitable consequences of some actions, the randomness of other events in their lives. Witnessing their journey was a thing of beauty. We are all on a journey, destination unknown.

immediately engaging

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