Shrines of Gaiety

Kate Atkinson

Penguin Random House

Otago Daily Times, January 14th 2023

In Shrines of Gaiety, Kate Atkinson brings the London of the roaring 20s to rich and glorious life. By 1926, the year in which the novel is set, rising unemployment and a growing social divide may be sowing the seeds for the coming depression, but the hedonistic decompression that followed the Great War is still alive and well, at least among the young and affluent. And nowhere is it more apparent than in the nightclubs of Soho, where the notorious Nellie Coker is the undisputed queen. Her establishments – the Pixie, the Foxhole, the Sphynx, the Crystal Cup, and the Amethyst – cater to the full cross-section of London society, from gang bosses to royalty, politicians, stars of stage and screen. But Nellie, just released from prison for selling alcohol without a license, is tired and considering retirement. Before she can, however, she must neutralise the men who threaten her empire: the Maltese businessman, Azzopardi, who seeks to acquire her property by fair means or foul, and Detective Chief Inspector John Frobisher, who is convinced that the disappearance of a string of young girls can be traced directly back to “the filthy, glittering underbelly of London…particularly the Amethyst, the gaudy jewel at the heart of Soho’s nightlife.” 

The novel follows the interconnecting paths of a variety of characters, from Freda, a fourteen-year-old runaway who dreams of starring on the London stage to Nellie’s youngest son, Ramsay, a dissolute and directionless young man who spends his days failing to write a great novel and his nights in a drug-induced stupor. As their various stories unfold and coalesce, we are treated to glimpses of the broader social scene: spielers – illegal card games – and ludic diversions (most memorably a grotesque Baby Party at which the dress and behaviour the guests, mostly Bright Young Things, is literally infantile), contemporary cocktails, police corruption, and the rise of the domestic automobile.

Atkinson’s deft control of plot is impressive, her carefully timed reveals ensuring tension is maintained throughout, but it is her characters that really shine. Nellie may be the matriarch, but all the women are formidable in their own way: Gwendolyn, the former army nurse Frobisher recruits to infiltrate Nellie’s network and who finds her affections well and truly divided, Freda, who, despite her vulnerability as a young and impoverished girl in a predatory world, insists on helping others as well as herself, and Nellie’s daughter Edith, who almost dies after a botched abortion.  But it is the complex and troubled Frobisher, whose noble intentions are balanced by a painful awareness of his own failings, I found most fascinating.  

Shrines of Gaiety transported me totally and utterly into its novelistic world, leaving me feeling short-changed by being evicted in a series of abrupt life summaries that follow the climactic scenes. But such is life: In a novel like this, meticulously researched and based in part on real people, there can be no fairy-tale endings. As the final paragraphs remind us, this post-war dream would only be temporary.