Shrines of Gaiety

Content Warning: The following section contains descriptions of death by suicide.

Shrines of Gaiety is set in 1926 London between World War I and II. While the author emphasizes that the book is fiction, the narrative is carefully contextualized. For example, there are references to the excitement that seized the city after World War I: “On Armistice night there had been couples […] actually fornicating in the shadows in the dance hall” (21). The book largely focuses on the wealthy elites of London post-WWI, depicting their frivolous lives during a post-war economic boom. It captures the spirit of the age for this echelon of society, prompted by financial prosperity and reactions against the devastations of wartime, which is now frequently summed up with the epithet the “Roaring Twenties.”

This is epitomized by the “Bright Young Things,” a term used in the novel that is contemporary to the period (Johnson, Ben. “Bright Young Things.” Historic UK, 2015). The characters themselves use the term “Bright Young Things” (82), referring to the adult children of the middle class and aristocrats who threw wild parties and became famous as their escapades were reported in gossip column written by people such as the character Vivian Quinn in Shrines of Gaiety. The world of the Bright Young Things is explored through the lens of one of Nellie’s children, Ramsay, who has a cocaine addiction, attends parties, and dreams of becoming a famous author. At one point, Ramsay attends a “Baby Party,” where adults dress up as babies and drink cocktails called “Mother’s Milk” (409). The Baby Party is based on a real-world event. In her author’s note, Atkinson shares that she based her description of it on Barbara Cartland’s memoir about the period, We Danced All Night (1970).

Although the frivolity of the period is highlighted, the author explores the darker shadows of the book’s historical context on the heels of World War I. Niven fought during the war, for example, while Gwendolen was a nurse. Gwendolen lost two brothers in the war. While Gwendolen never speaks explicitly of the atrocities that she saw, she alludes to them. For example, Gwendolen tells Frobisher, “I nursed throughout the war, Chief Inspector, I doubt there is anything left on earth that could shock me anymore” (75). Nellie also alludes to the impact of the war when an artist who helped decorate one of her clubs dies by suicide, and she notes that “[h]e wasn’t the first soldier unable to cope with the peace” (23).

The book’s focus on frivolity is significant given the dramatic irony that the date of 1926 affords. While London has barely recovered from WWI, the financial crash of 1929 is soon to come, followed by the Great Depression and, later, another world war. The narrative only alludes to WWII at the very end when a side character, a young newspaper boy who witnesses Nellie’s release from Holloway and, later, witnesses Sergeant Oakes’s execution, is named, and it’s revealed that he will die in WWII. The book is thus historically contextualized in a brief bright spot between two very dark moments in world history, lending poignance to the “gaiety” it depicts.