Tipping the Velvet is a 1998 lesbian novel written by Sarah Waters, set in the Victorian era. It was her ebut novel. It tells the story of Nancy Astley, an oyster girl from the English town of Whitstable, who falls in love with a male impersonator and stage performer named Kitty Butler. The book, like the rest of Waters' novels, has a strong lesbian theme, though Tipping the Velvet in particular deals very candidly with the topic of lesbian sex and desire along with the role that economic class can play in oppression. The title is Victorian slang for cunnilingus.