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 set in the roaring 1890s, Tipping the Velvet follows the glittering career of Nan King on her journey from Whitstable oyster-girl to music-hall star to cross-dressing rentboy to East End tom.,
