Tipping the velvet

This delightfully saucy debut novel recounts the unconventional life and times of Nan King, a Victorian-era lesbian bold enough to embrace and to eventually celebrate her unorthodox sexual orientation. When she falls in love with an artful male impersonator, Nan follows her secret paramour to London and becomes part of a popular cross-dressing music hall act. After her irresolute lover decides to marry her manager in order to safeguard her reputation, a devastated Nan flees, retreating to the seamy London netherworld inhabited by a variety of vividly drawn mashers, renters, toms, and mary annes. Barely surviving a series of sexual missteps and misadventures, a wary and jaded Nan stumbles into a relationship that eventually blossoms into true love. A humorous and remarkably honest period piece that pays homage to women who courageously crossed the boundaries of conventional Victorian behavior and sexuality. Margaret Flanagan

With a title that's a euphemism for cunnilingus and a plot awash with graphic lesbian sex, this lush tale fearlessly and feverishly exposes the political, social and sexual subversions of Victorian-era gender-benders: sapphists, libertines and passing women. Set in 1890s London against a backdrop of music halls and socialist demonstrations, Waters's debut (published to acclaim in England) is an engrossing story of a "tommish" woman battered and buoyed by the mores of the times. At 18, Nancy Astley is a fishmonger in coastal Whitstable, working with her sister and parents in the family oyster parlour. Smitten by male impersonator Kitty Butler, Nancy attends every show at the Canterbury Palace until the star notices her. A stunned Nancy finds herself Kitty's companion and dresser, and sexual tension keeps the pages turning as she becomes first Kitty's sweetheart, then her partner ("two lovely girls in trousers, instead of one!") in a wildly successful stage act. Kitty's shame over her sexual preference sends her into marriage to their manager, Walter Bliss, propelling devastated Nancy into a series of erotic excursions and a struggle for survival, first passing as a young man and hustling, then as wealthy widow Diana Lethaby's kept "tart," finally as the housekeeper for union organizer Florence Banner. Waters is a masterful storyteller, tantalizing the reader as Nancy endures melancholy squalor, betrayals, the lustful motives of swindling gay-girls and imperious ladies. The circumstances by which Nancy finally finds true love are unpredictable and moving. Amid the gentlemen trolling Piccadilly Circus for trysts with "renter" boys and the wealthy female guests of the Cavendish Clubs "Sapphists Only" parties, Nancy's search for love and identity is a raucous, passionate adventure, and a rare, thrilling read. Agent, Judith Murray. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

This rambunctious first novel by an English writer asks whether an oyster-girl can find success and lesbian love at the end of the 19th century. Nancy Astley leaves home to follow talented music hall artist Kitty Butler to London to become her dresser, companion, and, eventually, lover. Soon she is swept up into Kitty's theatrical world and becomes a performer herself. Rich, famous, and in love, Nancy loses it all overnight when Kitty chooses to closet herself in a conventional marriage. Friendless and destitute, Nancy descends into the demimonde before finding her feet again. Though the novel bogs down as Nancy drifts in sexual limbo with a rich and cruel mistress, Waters's use of detail has the reader smelling the smoke of the music halls, seeing the grime of London's slums, and indulging in the sensuous luxury of the very rich. From the seaside to the Socialist underground, this is an amusing romp through late Victorian society. For most collections. [The publisher is comparing Waters to Jeannette Winterson.ÄEd.]ÄDevon Thomas, Highland Twp. Lib., MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Echoes of Tom Jones, Great Expectations, and anonymous confessional pornography resound throughout this richly entertaining first novel from England: the picaresque tale of its lesbian heroine's progress through several levels of both polite and refreshingly impolite Victorian society. Nancy Astley has been plucked away from her close-knit family of fishmongers in seaside Whitstable and whisked off to London as(unofficial) ""dresser"" to music-hall entertainer Kitty Butler--""the girl what dresses up as a feller"" and the first love of stagestruck Nancy's young life. Before she's 20, she's become the coquettish Kitty's lover and also her stage partner, ""fellow"" male impersonator ""Nan King."" All is bliss until Kitty protects her reputation by escaping into marriage, and the abandoned Nancy finds work posing as a male street prostitute (or ""renter"") and undergoing undreamt-of sexual permutations and indignities as the girl/boytoy of lustful widow Diana Lethaby (at the latter's posh mansion, Felicity Place, and among jaded members of the militantly sapphic Cavendish Club) before seeking, losing, then reclaiming tree love with selfless ""charity visitor"" Florence Banner and finding her own voice as a fledgling Socialist. Marred only by a jerry-rigged conclusion in which the repentant Kitty is in effect punished for having concealed her sexuality, Waters's debut offers terrific entertainment: swiftly paced, crammed with colorful depictions of 1890s London and vividly sketched Dickensian supporting characters (Nancy's kindly parents recall the genial fisherfolk of David Copperfield), pulsating with highly charged (and explicitly presented) erotic heat. And Nancy's conflicted feelings--between the ""desperate pleasures"" to which she's drawn and her equally strong desire to become ""a regular girl . . . again""--are quite movingly delineated. A perfect fictional equivalent to such eye-opening standard works as Frank Harris's My Life and Loves and Steven Marcus's The Other Victorians--and a rather formidable debut. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

This delightfully saucy debut novel recounts the unconventional life and times of Nan King, a Victorian-era lesbian bold enough to embrace and to eventually celebrate her unorthodox sexual orientation. When she falls in love with an artful male impersonator, Nan follows her secret paramour to London and becomes part of a popular cross-dressing music hall act. After her irresolute lover decides to marry her manager in order to safeguard her reputation, a devastated Nan flees, retreating to the seamy London netherworld inhabited by a variety of vividly drawn mashers, renters, toms, and mary annes. Barely surviving a series of sexual missteps and misadventures, a wary and jaded Nan stumbles into a relationship that eventually blossoms into true love. A humorous and remarkably honest period piece that pays homage to women who courageously crossed the boundaries of conventional Victorian behavior and sexuality. ((Reviewed June 1 & 15, 1999)) Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews

When Nancy Astley falls for Kitty Butler, a cross-dressing cabaret singer, she has no idea just how far she'll go from her roots shucking oysters in a seaside resort in Kent. Waters's rowdy debut novel strikes out for a woman finding her independence in turn-of-the-century England, while painting a colorful portrait of the time. (LJ 3/15/99) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

This rambunctious first novel by an English writer asks whether an oyster-girl can find success and lesbian love at the end of the 19th century. Nancy Astley leaves home to follow talented music hall artist Kitty Butler to London to become her dresser, companion, and, eventually, lover. Soon she is swept up into Kitty's theatrical world and becomes a performer herself. Rich, famous, and in love, Nancy loses it all overnight when Kitty chooses to closet herself in a conventional marriage. Friendless and destitute, Nancy descends into the demimonde before finding her feet again. Though the novel bogs down as Nancy drifts in sexual limbo with a rich and cruel mistress, Waters's use of detail has the reader smelling the smoke of the music halls, seeing the grime of London's slums, and indulging in the sensuous luxury of the very rich. From the seaside to the Socialist underground, this is an amusing romp through late Victorian society. For most collections. [The publisher is comparing Waters to Jeannette Winterson. Ed.] Devon Thomas, Highland Twp. Lib., MI Copyright 1999 Library Journal Reviews

With a title that's a euphemism for cunnilingus and a plot awash with graphic lesbian sex, this lush tale fearlessly and feverishly exposes the political, social and sexual subversions of Victorian-era gender-benders: sapphists, libertines and passing women. Set in 1890s London against a backdrop of music halls and socialist demonstrations, Waters's debut (published to acclaim in England) is an engrossing story of a "tommish" woman battered and buoyed by the mores of the times. At 18, Nancy Astley is a fishmonger in coastal Whitstable, working with her sister and parents in the family oyster parlour. Smitten by male impersonator Kitty Butler, Nancy attends every show at the Canterbury Palace until the star notices her. A stunned Nancy finds herself Kitty's companion and dresser, and sexual tension keeps the pages turning as she becomes first Kitty's sweetheart, then her partner ("two lovely girls in trousers, instead of one!") in a wildly successful stage act. Kitty's shame over her sexual preference sends her into marriage to their manager, Walter Bliss, propelling devastated Nancy into a series of erotic excursions and a struggle for survival, first passing as a young man and hustling, then as wealthy widow Diana Lethaby's kept "tart," finally as the housekeeper for union organizer Florence Banner. Waters is a masterful storyteller, tantalizing the reader as Nancy endures melancholy squalor, betrayals, the lustful motives of swindling gay-girls and imperious ladies. The circumstances by which Nancy finally finds true love are unpredictable and moving. Amid the gentlemen trolling Piccadilly Circus for trysts with "renter" boys and the wealthy female guests of the Cavendish Clubs "Sapphists Only" parties, Nancy's search for love and identity is a raucous, passionate adventure, and a rare, thrilling read. Agent, Judith Murray. (June) Copyright 1999 Publishers Weekly Reviews