The Bell Family

She came from nothing but shame and silence. He could sell anything—except the truth about his own heart. Martha Lowery flees her Irish family’s smallholding in Hexham with little more than her baking skills and a fierce will to survive. Haunted by the dark secrets of her childhood and a father whose cruelty drove her from home, working as a cook and cleaner. She hopes only for safety. Respectability seems far beyond reach.

Irish Secrets and Lies Newcastle upon Tyne, 1870s She came from nothing but shame and silence. He could sell anything — except the truth about his own heart. Martha Lowery flees her Irish family’s smallholding in Hexham with little more than her baking skills and a fierce will to survive...

The story opens in Newcastle, Northern England, and we meet J.B. Sutherland—brewer and eventually the owner of the Victorian pub by the River Tyne, The Barley Mow. The family saga is told by his middle daughter, Elizabeth, whose childhood is wonderful until her father suddenly dies, and their eldest illegitimate brother, John Thomas, shows up at their father's funeral to inherit the pub.

This witty, caustic yet compassionate historical novel explores the meeting of two unlikely young people in 1923 – Amos Bell train driver of the Flying Scotsman, and an opera singer, Madame Neil-Gregory. Their Northern erratic love story takes place in cities around Britain, as Alice (her birth name) builds her career as a coloratura, eventually singing dressed as Elizabeth 1 for George V at the new Wembley Park in London.

What happens to a young couple when the first flush of love fades? Alice and Amos Bell marry in 1925, when flappers and jazz prosper. Alice and her sister are ardent suffragists who live by their own rules, while their world overflows with parties, music, and dancing. But their struggle increases with the Depression years, followed by the World War II. Amos Bell does not deal with the stormy relationships with his children or his wife. As Alice’s health declines Amos’ infidelity dramas explode, with the German bombs dropping on Yorkshire being the least of their troubles.

The 1950s for three Yorkshire sisters who grew up under the same roof but shared little beyond their surname, Bell. Biddy, Dorothy, and Madge could not be more different. Post-war Britain rebuilds; each woman dreams of a future shaped on her own terms. Childhood rivalries and clashing personalities lead to simmering resentments overlaid with music of the period. By the not-so-swinging 1960s, husbands, children, and changing expectations force each woman to confront difficult truths about love, duty, and independence. By the 1970s, their differences could no longer be ignored.