Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson

From the inimitable bestselling author, Kate Atkinson, a mesmerising novel set in the glittering world of Soho in the 1920s – a place of gangsters and showgirls, Bright Young Things and one remarkable woman.

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.

At the heart of this glittering world is notorious 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

‘Seduction, betrayal, and larger-than-life characters that will have you hooked until the last page’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

‘This book is one to savour, for the energy, for the wit, for the tenderness of characterisation that make Atkinson enduringly popular’ GUARDIAN

‘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.’ FINANCIAL TIMES

544pp. b-format paperback

19.7 x 3.2 x 12.9cm

Published May 2023 by Penguin Random House