Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters

Written by Sarah Waters this is her first novel and it details lesbianism in Victorian England. First published in 1998. 18 year old Nancy, a Kentish oyster maid visits the local music halls and sees Kitty Butler, a masher act (a woman dressed as a man). She is hooked from the very first time and goes back time and time again to see the performance. Eventually she is asked to visit Kitty in the dressing rooms and their friendship develops. From here we are taken through a whirlwind of her developing romance with Kitty. Betrayal, prostituion, slavery and the ultimate happy ending. Waters creates a vivid, convincing world that is ...  Read the complete review

I thought this book was beautifully written. Waters has an amazing capacity for evoking atmosphere and the details are vivid and arresting. The storyline is perhaps a little contrived towards the end, but anyone who finds the content shocking, distasteful, or even unrealistic, is to my mind rather naive. Nothing Nancy gets up to, no world she finds herself in, is particulary strange, only that she finds herself in one such world after another.

I have bought every book that Sarah Waters ever published based on my experience of her exquisitely detailed book “Affinity”, in which her written style was clear, and detail amazingly real. This book is more well known since it has been televised, although having just read it, I can only assume that the program could never actually be true to the book, unless it is on at an adult only time, since it's attention to detail is such that it proved a disturbing read. The book tells the story of Nan King, who works in her family Oyster restaurant in Whitstable at the turn of the 19th Century to 20th Century. She is a likeable character at first, and has acquired ...  Read the complete review

With lesbian escapades galore, Victorian ideals, a fish shop and even the highs and lows of theatre, ‘Tipping the Velvet’ appears to be a bit of an eclectic read. Most of you will know that author Sarah Waters territory lies firmly in the ‘I write bizarrely set lesbian tales’ category. When I began reading ‘Tipping the Velvet’, I was quite unaware of this, which made for a surprising read indeed. In the end, I can’t quite comprehend this novel. The only thing I can say for sure is that it is certainly unique. Set in the late 19th century to early 20th , ‘Tipping the Velvet’ follows the lives of Nan and Kitty, two young ladies who happen upon each other, fall ...  Read the complete review