Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson

1920s Soho, a place where the lingering loss of war tries to soothe a traumatised population with an exuberant release of gambling, wild partying and hedonism. The opportunity for fortunes to be made invites a tussle for power between dubious,entrepreneurial night club owners and corrupt law enforcement. Add to this, the draw of naive youth from the provinces, to the legendary golden paved streets of the capital.

The author paints a colourful vibrant canvas, which she then populates with detailed, well drawn, believable characters. Their lives, so different from each other, yet so carefully interwoven, bring this story to life.

Bloody brilliant 🤩 I do hope this one makes it to the tv just like life after life ; based on the true story of the soho nightclub owner in the ‘20s Kate Meyrick aka Nellie Coker. I particularly loved Frobisher the detective & the wonderful Gwendolyn Keeling and handsome Niven, feisty and tough Freda and disillusioned Florence , wonderful wonderful wonderful ! A sprawling yarn of 20s London the toffs the seedy under world , with wonderful characters , which all draws to a nail biting brilliant conclusion, perhaps apart from Florence’s but still bravo 👏🏻BRILLIANT if you only read one book this year it should be this oh and lessons in chemistry !

You can always rely on Kate Atkinson for a cracking read, and Shrines of Gaiety is no exception.

Set in London's 1920s nightclub scene, the story is based on real life characters - which always adds to a story for me. Full of hedonism, gangsters, colour and money, this is a dazzling and thrilling novel.

My only criticism is for the ending - such a tidy wrap-up that seemed rather quick and artificial. Still a great read though.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book.

I just couldn’t get into this book which is a shame as I’ve enjoyed many of the author’s previous books. Didn’t care about the characters at all

I have really enjoyed reading this book and found it very difficult to put down. The author has brought 1920s London low-life and high-life alive, creating atmospheric settings and a great cast of fascinating characters, and with lots of humour. Parts of the plot have been based on real events and people, and I wasn't surprised to read (in the afterword) that Atkinson had done such thorough research. This mystery novel is just waiting to be turned into a film or TV series!

Took me a while to get into and therefore finish but once I'd got to know the large cast of characters this had the classic Kate Atkinson humour and I couldn't wait to pick it up each time. Quite similar in theme to her recent writing in that it's set around war time/post war London and has a crime investigation at the centre. A fun, well written read.

I think I've read all Atkinson's previous novels so I am definitely a fan and this latest doesn't disappoint. In Shrines of Gaiety we meet a huge cast of characters who sprawl across the page and London itself in the 1920s. Nellie, the matriarch of the Coker family, Edith the poor wronged daughter, Niven the war hero, Ramsey, the ne'er do well hoping for literary success ( this was very funny), Gwendolyn ( possibly the hero of the novel: a war nurse turned librarian turned undercover sleuth) and Frobisher the policeman who was the lone voice of good in a most corrupt police station. Freda and Florence the 'lost girls' brought up the ranks.

Based loosely on some real characters and with obvious meticulous research, it was a great romp of a story and it wasn't always easy to choose a favourite character to root for ( Frobisher of course, Niven possibly and Nellie herself trying always to do her best to keep her family in the manner to which she had broken accustomed). This was the roaring twenties and drink, drugs, murder, gambling featured heavily with the bright young things getting away with, well, murder and always the need for each character to look over their shoulder. The occasional reminder of the horrors of the War reminded us of why everyone wanted to get on with their lives so rapaciously. But against this, girls are disappearing and being found floating in the Thames, Freda and Florence stars-of-the-stage hopefuls have disappeared and Gwendolyn and Frobisher have to find them before they too turn up dead.

I loved this glorious, captivating, humorous novel and raced through it. It's a return to Atkinson at her finest and anyone with a heart will love it.

I love Kate Atkinson and my favourite books of hers are the historical fiction ones, so I knew I'd love this. It's not a thriller but is still somehow an absolute pageturner. There is a fairly large cast of characters but they are all distinct and memorable. Highly recommend.

This book has a couple of elements that would normally make me give up immediately: an omniscient narrator, lots of telling rather than showing and jumping around in time. But Kate Atkinson is a master author. She has taken the rule book, thrown it out and created another masterpiece to rival one of my all time favourite books, Life After Life.

Shrines of Gaiety teems with life following the fortunes of the Coker family, owners of several nightclubs in and around Soho in the 1920s. Atkinson manages to cover a range of experience from the Cokers themselves, to young Freda Murgatroyd who runs away to London to be an actress, to Yorkshire librarian Gwendolyn Kelling who comes to London in search of Freda and her friend Florence, to policeman John Frobisher keen to put Nellie Coker back in jail - the list goes on. The cast is huge, but the book is so immersive that the reader doesn't get lost, and I found myself desperate to find out what happened to each one as I dashed through 1920s London under the shadow of the war that most of the characters are desperate to forget.

As usual, the prose is exquisite and the plot carries you quickly through to the end. I was so sad to leave them all. I can see this being a BBC drama too.

Highly recommend. Outstanding!

Kate Atkinson's 1920s set historical novel beguiles as it paints a Dickensian picture of London with its filth, poverty, the sordid, criminal gangs, streetwalkers, corrupt cops, gambling, and murder, a city desperate to shrug off the terrors, pain, suffering, grief, death and darkness of the war and passionately embrace a culture of dancing, drink, drugs, and debauchery, like there is no tomorrow, the roaring twenties have arrived. Filling this need and making money hand over fist is the notorious Nellie 'Ma' Coker with her 'shrines of gaiety', her popular group of nightclubs, the jewel in the crown being 'The Amethyst', where royalty, peers of the realm, film stars, 'bright young things', and foreign dignitaries rub shoulders with criminals and everything inbetween. She is a powerful, successful, pagan and ruthless force of nature to be reckoned with, operating in a cut throat man's world of business of the time, wedded to reading the future through the cards and haunted by a past that has her constantly seeing the dripping wet, ghostly appariton of a young girl.

Whilst not containing a maternal bone in her body, Nellie will do whatever she can to ensure the survival and elevation of her 6 children. There is the war hardened sniper and his own man, Niven, the reliable book keeper Edith, the Cambridge educated if vacuous, Betty and Shirley, expected to marry into the aristocracy, the unrooted Ramsay with his pretensions of being a novelist, and the young Kitty. Upon being released from a stint in Holloway Prison, Nellie is the toast of the town, but some sense weakness, making plans to grab her business empire, willing to do anything to hasten her downfall, others pose a danger to her family, and some threats come from within. But Nellie is no pushover, she might be getting older, but she has not lost her guile and cunning. The honest DCI John Frobisher wants to ensure Ma Coker faces justice, and recruits an unlikely spy, a provincial librarian and ex-battlefield nurse, Gwendolen Kelling, with her charismatic spirit of adventure, to help him. She is in London to finally live a life, and to find the runaways girls, Freda, chasing her pipe dreams of dancing and fame, and her naive and more innocent friend, Florence.

Freda and Florence have been lured to a city where girls and young women are disappearing, some turning up dead in the River Thames. Atkinson spins a delightful, vibrant and ripping historical yarn of a London in the grip of a life affirming need to throw off the shackles of the horrors of war, capturing the collapse of class and social divisions in the excitement, thrills and hedonism of the nightlife. This glittering age exists simultaneously amidst the background of insights into the Coker family, crime and corruption, a web of intrigue and plotting, and the undercurrents of menace with the rising tide of dead young girls. This is a irresistible, captivating and engaging read, although I should warn readers that it might take a little time to become fully immersed and that there is a large cast of disparate characters that inhabit the narrative. Highly recommended for fans of Atkinson and other readers, including those who love historical fiction. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

Atkinson masterfully brings 1920s London to life, the glamour, the grime and the seediness that lingers in the darkness.

Shrines of Gaiety centres around the Coker family and their collection of clubs in London in 1926. The Coker matriarch has just been released from prison and her six children are learning how to adapt as a family since her release as well as how to work together against the dark forces that wish to bring the Cokers down.

Atkinson can always be relied upon to write an interesting and engaging story and Shrines of Gaiety is no exception.

A wonderful cast of characters and all the intrigue double dealing and above all the triumph of hope are crammed into this novel which is a joy to read. Kate Atkinson has written another masterful story that covers the London fallout from the First World War and the nightlife of a city in recovery and thriving. So very enjoyable, this is a treasure of a book whose characters and stories will move you, entertain you and stay with you.

Can't beat a Kate Atkinson book for a good read, though I felt this one was a little unfinished - the ARC I gratefully received from NetGalley is of a draft that needs editing and proofreading. Fair enough. Because of this though, I felt it didn't hold together as well as her other books.

The world of Nellie Coker and her nightclubs is well portrayed - the glitter and the sleaze - as are the various nefarious characters who want to bring her down. Nellie herself is an odd creature - cold-hearted and money-oriented - and her six children are well-delineated, apart from Shirley and Betty, who seem to come as a pair.

DI Frobisher is a reserved man with a mentally ill wife. He teams up with Gwendolen Kelling, a former librarian who has come to London to look for two missing girls.

Those are the basics. What follows is a mix of the two story lines, which of course join up at some point.

I enjoyed the book to a point, though as I say, it seems rather disjointed and in need of editing. My greatest disappointment was the ending, or one aspect of it, which I was not expecting and thought was rather abrupt and unnecessary.

Kate Atkinson has really returned to top form with this one! A great read, full of fascinating detail and well-crafted, believable characters.
London between the wars and everyone wants to have fun, but beneath the surface is a world of crime, drug abuse and exploitation.
Fans of historical fiction will love this!

Another Kate Atkinson novel that will no doubt be a popular read. the novel goes to and fro in places and time frames. But Kate allows us to catch up with all the characters in the end to discover what happens to the people who are somehow 'left' in the initial storyline. A very interesting book that you will want to finish. Worth the read

I loved this book and it's still with me weeks after finishing it. I felt totally immersed in Nellie Cokers world and the characterisation was incredible - so many characters swirling around and yet she manages to bring each of them to life so you feel surrounded by the story. It's been described as Dickensian and like him I think KA is a master of the multi character/multi story line that weaves and crosses and somehow all ends up resolved. It also has that mix of dark and light that she does so well. An absolute triumph.

I’m usually a fan of Kate Atkinson but this new novel fell short of the mark for me. I appreciated the descriptions of 1920s London and a behind the scenes look at the criminal underground, however I failed to connect with any of the characters and found the story somewhat lacking.

Thank you for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book. I enjoy reading Kate Atkinson books and believe I have read them all. Initially I found this story a little difficult to follow who the characters were and how they inter-related. However, once I had got into the story I found the underworld of London fascinating. I can well believe that the likes of Nellie Coker were able to control much of the seedier side of Soho and had police officers on their payroll. Niven was an interesting character who didn't seem to want to belong in the same circles. His sisters were each different in their own ways. Edith as the one whom Nellie felt was her natural successor, didn't follow the path so well. I won't spoil things for the reader by telling more. I can however, recomend this book to those who enjoy historical fiction & thrillers.

Excellent read. I would recommend this book for anyone with an interest in the 1920s, family drama and/or gangland crime. The story centres around Nellie notorious owner of a number of dubious London nightclubs whose sons and daughters each have a part to play within their clubbing empire. Each have their own problems in life brought about by their domineering mother. Does it all end happily, read this book to find out.

Atkinson is a favorite writer of mine, and this new novel did not disappoint. She paints postwar London so beautifully, in a way that is appealing without minimizing the hardness of life.