Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson

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.

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.

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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.

My Review

I adored this book more than I can even put into words. Everything about it, everyone in it and there’s even a cute terrier called Pierrot (I hope the name isn’t a spoiler but I think I need a dog called Pierrot).

Nellie Coker is the head of an empire. She runs five somewhat dodgy nightclubs with the help of her children – Niven, a romantic figure who fought in the Great War, the enigmatic and clever Edith, glamorous Shirley (I can’t read about Shirley without imagining someone I work with who shares her name and is about as glam as it gets), equally glamorous Betty, and budding author Ramsay. We also have 14-year-old Kitty but she’s a pain in the neck, though it’s not really her fault. Where Nellie got the money to start up her business remains shrouded in mystery, but we can guess it wasn’t legal.

In the meantime, 14-year-old Freda runs away to London with her friend Florence, to seek their fortune as dancers on the stage, along with the hundreds of other girls their age. Freda is quite talented for a girl from the provinces, while poor Florence is better at eating humbugs than performing. However, to make it as a dancer in the metropolis is less about talent and more about what you are prepared to trade for fame and fortune.

Detective Chief Inspector Frobisher is a man on a mission – he is determined to bring the Coker Empire crashing down and reveal the police corruption that allows Nellie to continue running her shady clubs. However, he has also been tasked with finding Freda and Florence by Gwendolen Kelling, a friend of Freda’s sister. Gwendolen is a librarian, who has inherited what was a lot of money in 1926, so she takes a sabbatical from the library and heads off to London. There’s also a romantic love interest, but with whom (and there’s more than one) is one of the delights of the story.

I could go on and on. Everyone is so well written – I loved them all, though I have my favourites, particularly Gwendolen. There is sadness, joy, murder, romance, a haunting, 1920s excesses, and humour.

‘”I know Pamela,” Betty said. “She’s not in the least bit bright.” All of the Cokers poured scorn on the so-called Bright Young Things. “She’s not even that young,” Shirley said. “Just a thing then,” Betty said.’

I must now start reading Kate’s other novels, but which one to start with?

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours

About the Author

Kate Atkinson is one of the world’s foremost novelists. She won the Costa Book of the Year prize with her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Her three critically lauded and prize-winning novels set around the Second World War are Life After Life, an acclaimed 2022  BBC TV series starring Thomasin McKenzie, A God in Ruins (both winners of the Costa Novel Award) and Transcription.

Her bestselling literary crime novels featuring former detective Jackson Brodie, Case Histories, One Good Turn, When Will There Be Good News? and Started Early, Took My Dog, became a BBC television series starring Jason Isaacs. Jackson Brodie later returned in the novel Big Sky. Kate Atkinson was awarded an MBE in 2011 and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.