Shrines of Gaiety: The Sunday Times Bestseller, May 2023

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The ending is a little anti-climactic after such a wonderful set up however this was not something that overly bothered me. We also get a final section on what happened to the characters afterwards, something I always appreciate. The thing I loved best was the author's note at the end. It explained her interest and reference used and made me wish I had liked it better. 2.5 rounded up.

Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson: 9780593466322

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' There’s a certain joy in opening a Kate Atkinson novel—a feeling that every element matters and that each surprise will ultimately make perfect sense…Atkinson’s characters and their choices, curiosities and corruptions keep the story unfolding, making the resolution worth every second.” 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.”

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This part-literary, part-thriller novel showcases a host of glittering characters...Full of dry wit and charm...if you loved Peaky Blinders, you'll love this. WOMAN & HOME As with many Atkinson novels, there are small elements of magical realism which add to the colour and atmosphere but which don’t detract from the main story. Around the Coker empire, and its police ‘associates’, clients, and suppliers, is a broad cast of characters ranging from young girls seeking their fortune in London to Distressed Gentlewomen living in a boarding house. This is a well-crafted combination of history and fiction, which begins in London in 1926 with the release from prison of Nellie Coker. Nellie is the well-known owner of infamous night clubs and the single mother of six adult children. There are many characters and intersecting story lines, which flow seamlessly. In Soho, London, Nellie Coker is queen of all she surveys - successful owner of a string of nightclubs, she’s a ruthless character - knows what she wants, and also gets what she wants! She’s extremely shrewd, has a good business head, and is determined and ambitious enough to want the best education that money can buy for her six children - her nightclubs provide the means for those ambitions.

Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson | Goodreads

Shrines of Gaiety" definitely has all the usual hallmarks of a Kate Atkinson novel, and as mentioned above, her writing style, vocabulary, imagination and attention to detail is superb as usual. But the plot itself is too slow to develop, and the characters themselves are bland and non-engaging and underdeveloped, and these factors definitely hurt the novel. 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 EXPRESS We see how run down everyone is after the war, while most of the characters didn't serve at the Front, the ones left behind still feel the pain of it. And we see how the clubs bring a gaiety and a release after so much grief.In this fizzy, sprawling picaresque — filigreedwith outsize characters and the improbable coincidencesof a Victorian serial — the novelist imaginesa former combat nurse looking for a missinggirl in a London that’s shaking off World War I.” 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.

Shrines of Gaiety - Penguin Books UK

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. Beneath their costumes people could be anyone, their intentions anything. It was a frightening idea.

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London is recovering from WWI as the story opens,and the jazz age is in full swing. Inhibitions are lowered, and Nellie is eager to profit from the new normal where some policemen are willing to turn a blind eye for the right sum. Raised in hardscrabble surroundings, she and her children now share a large home in a respectable part of London. The novel follows her enigmatic son, Niven, in particular. He chooses to distance himself from the family more than his brother and sisters have done. A chance encounter with a young woman, Gwendolyn, who has come to London seeking her friend's sister, Florence, leads to an entangement neither had anticipated. Ramsay, the younger son, is addicted to the drugs he regularly receives from the bartender at one of the nightclubs. He is an aspiring author with limited abilities and no maternal encouragement. Nellie’s daughters’ lives are under her direction. But Bruce Katz (Goodreads great guy) is absolutely right —this book is certainly more like “A God in Ruins” than “Life After Life”….. Not at all,’ the toff said, swaying affably. ‘It’s a cause for festivities. Old Ma Coker is being released.’