I've recently been rereading Tipping the Velvet, which is a terrific book: beautifully written, absorbing, intelligent, entertaining and just all-round cool, and, along with Fingersmith, one of my favourite books. If you haven't tried Sarah Waters, I'd highly recommend her.

Now, for those of you who haven't read it, the story involves a girl who falls in love with, and then joins the act of, a nineteenth-century actress who makes her living on the halls by male impersonations. In tribute to this, I looked a few things up, and present for your entertainment a more recent example: Julie Andrews doing a pretty good male-impersonation act.

The song is 'Burlington Bertie from Bow', a traditional music-hall song that was once performed by the famous impersonator Vesta Tilley - you can see a poster advertising her singing it here, in fact.

Amazing what the internet furnishes when you're having a bit of a blocked afternoon, really. (Though I actually got slightly more written than my target, this week.) So, yay for Sarah Waters, and enjoy Julie singing you into the weekend...