Shrines of Gaiety: The Sunday Times Bestseller, May 2023

Product Information

A] riveting re-creation of life in 1920s London…Atkinson’s palpable fondness for her characters helps her to imbue even themost minor of them with texture and depth, and she brings the same attention to detail to her portrait of the highs and lows of Jazz Age London. Another triumph from one of our finest novelists.” But Bruce Katz (Goodreads great guy) is absolutely right —this book is certainly more like “A God in Ruins” than “Life After Life”….. The author gives many references to her research, but rather than use the dry facts, she’s jazzed it up for us.

Shrines of Gaiety: A Novel: Atkinson, Kate: 9780385547970 Shrines of Gaiety: A Novel: Atkinson, Kate: 9780385547970

Atkinson captures both the glamour and the seediness of this heady period with consummate skill in a book teeming with memorable characters. Gorgeously vivid, often strange and always very funny, it should cement her reputation as one of our finest novelists. Jake Kerridge, SUNDAY EXPRESSAtkinson 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.’ – The Times

Shrines of Gaiety - Penguin Books UK

Atkinson has a plotter’s mind: intricate, clever, satisfying… Shrines of Gaiety is engrossing and fun, powered by subtle skills.’ – The Sunday Times

Select a format:

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. This book is one to savour, for the energy, for the wit, for the tenderness of characterisation that make Atkinson enduringly popular. GUARDIAN She’s definitely not herself,’ Templeton murmured to the barman as they watched Nellie toasting the empty air.”

Shrines of Gaiety: A Novel: Atkinson, Kate: 9780593466322 Shrines of Gaiety: A Novel: Atkinson, Kate: 9780593466322

There is the perfect balance throughout of sweetness and heartbreak. And, as always, there is the unmistakable zest of Ms. Atkinson's dry wit. Anna Mundow, WALL STREET JOURNALSet during Jazz Age London, in all its fizzy madness and desperation…. As dark as [Atkinson’s] stories can get, within them always shines a beacon of humanity.” —Gillian Flynn, bestselling author of Dark Places