ABSTRACT
Sarah Waters has established herself as one of the most original writers of historical fiction in the country. Born in Pembrokeshire in 1966, Sarah Waters studied English literature at the University of Kent and went on to work for a PhD in gay and lesbian historical fiction. It was from her academic work that her fiction emerged as she became fascinated by the hidden lesbian subculture of Victorian London. She has won the Somerset Maugham Award and has been shortlisted for both the Booker Prize and the Orange Prize. From its very title, Tipping the Velvet is a humorously unabashed and unapologetic celebration of lesbian eroticism and sexual diversity. The early scenes of Fingersmith, Waters's third novel, take place in the thieves' dens of 1860s Southwark and the book expands into an elaborate story of cross and double-cross centred on what seems to be a suave conman's attempt to use the heroine in a plot to defraud a wealthy heiress.
