From the oyster huts of Whitstable to the music halls of Victorian London, Tipping the Velvet is the glorious first novel from this much-loved author ''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.'' A saucy, sensuous and multi-layered historical romance, Tipping the Velvet follows the glittering career of Nan King - oyster girl turned music-hall star turned rent boy turned East End ''tom''. ''Erotic and absorbing... Written with startling power'' New York Times Book Review ''An unstoppable read, a sexy and picaresque romp through the lesbian and queer demi-monde of the roaries Nineties'' Independent on Sunday ''Waters is an extremely confident writer, combining precise, sensuous descriptions with irony and wit'' Observer