STREET LAVENDER is the witty and spirited narrative of young Willie Smith, a perky redhead born in Victorian London whose precocious sexuality enables him to escape his dirt-poor origins in one of the few ways available to the working-class - namely, by going on the game. The result is a marvellous narrative that functions simultaneously as an account of a sexual awakening; an acute socio-political commentary on the Victorian era; a faultless pastiche of Victorian writing; a shamelessly erotic expose (the "black velvet" scene will leave you rapt!); and, finally, a life-affirming Bildungsroman in which a young man discovers his purpose in life.

An absolute must-read for aficionados of gay historical fiction, STREET LAVENDER is one of those works that has helped define the genre (in interviews Sarah Waters has acknowledged its influence on her own first genre-busting novel, TIPPING THE VELVET). ( )