"Lavishly crammed with the songs, smells, and costumes of late Victorian England" (The Daily Telegraph), this delicious, steamy debut novel chronicles the adventures of Nan King, who begins life as an oyster girl in the provincial seaside town of Whitstable and whose fortunes are forever changed when she falls in love with a cross-dressing music-hall singer named Miss Kitty Butler. When Kitty is called up to London for an engagement on "Grease Paint Avenue, " Nan follows as her dresser and secret lover, and, soon after, dons trousers herself and joins the act.

In time, Kitty breaks her heart, and Nan assumes the guise of butch roue to commence her own thrilling and varied sexual education—a sort of Moll Flanders in drag—finally finding friendship and true love in the most unexpected places.

Drawing comparison to the work of Jeanette Winterson, Sarah Waters's novel is a feast for the senses—an erotic, lushly detailed historical novel that bursts with life and dazzlingly casts the turn of the century in a different light.

"Erotic and absorbing...Written with startling power."—The New York Times Book Review

"Glorious...an exceptional debut."—Boston Globe

"Wonderful...a sensual experience that leaves the reader marveling at the author's craftsmanship, idiosyncrasy, and sheer effort."—San Francisco Chronicle

"Amazing...this is the lesbian novel we've all been waiting for...delightful."—Salon.com

"Compelling...Readers of all sexes and orientations should identify with this gutsy hero as she learns who she is and how to love."—Newsday

"Delectable...written in roguishly lilting prose filled with the sights, sounds, and stenches of London street life."—Seattle Times

"Big, bawdy...a story of working-class guts and sexual bravado. Run, don't walk; this is a rare treat."—OUT Magazine

"Lusty and lavish, richly embroidered and boldly rendered, Tipping the Velvet is an amazingly assured debut novel...an exquisitely penned, rapidly paced, thoroughly entertaining tale that leaves the reader wanting more."—>Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"Echoes of Tom Jones, Great Expectations...Waters's debut offers terrific entertainment: pulsing with highly charged (and explicitly presented) erotic heat...A rather formidable debut."—Kirkus Reviews

"Warning: Do not open Tipping the Velvet if you have calls to make, clothes to launder, or deadlines to meet. Just give up and head for the beach until you finish this riotously sexy epic of lesbian London at the dawn of the twentieth century...Waters is a spellbinding storyteller."—The Advocate