Book Description
"Lavishly crammed with the songs, smells, and
costumes of late Victorian England" (The Daily
Telegraph), this delicious, steamy debut novel chronicles
the adventures of Nan King, who begins life as an oyster girl
in the provincial seaside town of Whitstable and whose
fortunes are forever changed when she falls in love with a
cross-dressing music-hall singer named Miss Kitty Butler.
When Kitty is called up to London for an engagement on
"Grease Paint Avenue, " Nan follows as her dresser
and secret lover, and, soon after, dons trousers herself and
joins the act.
In time, Kitty breaks her heart, and Nan assumes the guise of
butch roue to commence her own thrilling and varied sexual
education--a sort of Moll Flanders in drag--finally finding
friendship and true love in the most unexpected places.
Drawing comparison to the work of Jeanette Winterson, Sarah
Waters's novel is a feast for the senses--an erotic, lushly
detailed historical that bursts with life and dazzlingly
casts the turn of the century in a different light.
"An unstoppable read, a sexy and picaresque romp through
the lesbian and queer demi-monde of the roaring Nineties.
It's gorgeous." --The Independent on Sunday (UK)