Part of Virago’s Five Gold Reads: five reissues of significant titles representing fifty years of feminist publishing. ‘Waters’ persistent picking apart of class is fascinating’ OBSERVER ‘Sarah Waters, quite simply, is one of our greatest writers’ SUNDAY EXPRESS ‘A first-class storyteller’ EVENING STANDARD

‘It’s a rare pleasure to discover a writer as assured as Waters’ SUNDAY TIMES

At the same time, behind closed doors, they admit their attraction to each other and their affair begins. Soon after, she becomes Kitty’s dresser and the two head for the bright lights of Leicester Square where they begin a glittering career as music-hall stars in an all-singing and dancing double act. Through a friend at the box office, Nan manages to visit all her shows and finally meet her heroine. Nan King, an oyster girl, is captivated by the music hall phenomenon Kitty Butler, a male impersonator extraordinaire treading the boards in Canterbury. Piercing the shadows of the naked stage was a single shaft of rosy limelight, and in the centre of this was a girl: the most marvellous girl – I knew it at once! – that I had ever seen. ‘Waters is an author to cherish’ GUARDIAN ‘Everyone’s appetites will be satisfied’ ELLE MAGAZINE ‘Intelligent, witty and stylish’ INDEPEDENT

Tipping the velvet by sarah waters