Shrines of Gaiety set in London – Kate Atkinson
Meet Nellie Coker – Soho club queen
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, an alternative world comes alive. And the Queen of this glittering world – Nellie Coker.
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Boarding Pass Information : Shrines of Gaeity
Destination : London
Author guide: Kate Atkinson
Genre: literary fiction
Food and drink to accompany: Soho noodles with added spice
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A novel to transport you to the London glittery club scene
From the start, you know this is going to be a dramatic novel. I sat through the first chapter waiting for someone notorious to be released from prison.
I found myself in London, a few years after the Great War. Most people were recovering from this time but I joined the dazzling cast of characters in London’s bars and clubs. It was a bit like a Dickens novel at first with the gangsters, corrupt policemen, poor people all suffering from the social mores of the time.
Soho in 1926 was quite a place it turns out. Nellie Coker is the matriach of this world and runs a series of nightclubs. Nellie was an amazing character and I was both scared and excited to get to know her. She is very shrewd and wiley and will do anything to get along in life. She wants the best for her 6 children and the nightclubs are her world and her way of getting the things she knows she deserves from life.
BookTrail the locations in Shrines of Gaiety
The novel read like an epic Dickensian type of dramatic story. Historical and dangerous too. Nellie might be Queen of all she surveys now but there is always someone wanting to steal her crown. The woman has to sleep with one eye open.
The setting is subline but it’s the characters who make this novel.
The characterisation is exceptional. There are a lot of characters but with this author, you can tell each one on sight. The dialogue is clever and intriguing. The humour and bawdiness is fun. Shrines of Gaiety is a full circle, well bodied and spicy read that I found to be a rip- roaring compelling ride.
Highy recommended.
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