Tipping the Velvet

Publisher and industry reviews

Jacket review

'An unstoppable read, a sexy and picaresque romp through the lesbian and queer demi-monde of the roaring Nineties. Could this be a new genre? The bawdy lesbian picaresque novel?' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'This could be the most important debut of its kind since that of Jeanette Winterson' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'A delightful novel which sets a new standard for lesbian historical fiction, and should entice new readers to the genre' EMMA DONOGHUE

UK Kirkus review

It is the late 19th century, and Nancy is a girl from an honest Whitstable oyster-selling family whose head is turned by a visit to the local music hall. There she watches, night after night, a song and dance routine by Kitty Butler, a girl not much older than herself who dresses as a boy. Her obsession deepens and awakens sexual feelings she can neither express nor deny, so when Kitty befriends her and asks her to travel to London with her as her dresser, she accepts immediately. What follows are the next five years of Nancy's life her passionate love for Kitty, Kitty's betrayal of that love, and the slow working through of her despair and grief. The journey takes Nancy through the lowest depravities of the London sex scene, where she earns her living for a while as a rent 'boy', to the luxury of being the private toy of a wealthy lesbian with outlandish tastes and expensive habits. The pain of losing Kitty never goes, even as her experiences harden her, and this is as much a book about the agony of growing out of a lost first love and finding something to replace it, as it is a historical picture of the sleaziest aspects of life in Victorian London. It is erotic and sometimes explicit but Nancy's feelings, or numb lack of them, are always the point. She eventually finds both love and work which will use her talents constructively, but it's a tortuous and sometimes hopeless-seeming route. Sarah Waters writes without hitting a wrong note. The historical detail and the outlandish vocabulary are an education in themselves, brought to life through a variety of convincingly individual characters. Reading the first sentence, you know you will be captivated until the very end. It's a gripping and memorable ride. (Kirkus UK)

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