A working-class British saga following one family across a century of change — from Edwardian railways to the restless seventies.
On the soot-stained platforms of Edwardian Britain, a working-class family bound to the railways finds its fortunes lifted and shattered by the great locomotive that thunders through their lives. A tender, vividly researched opening to the Bell family saga.
From wartime dance halls to smoky 1960s clubs, music carries the Bells through love affairs, heartbreaks and the slow rewriting of Britain itself. A novel about the songs that hold ordinary families together.
A whispered secret beneath a great Highland estate threatens to undo everything the Bells have built. Loyalty, class and quiet defiance collide in a richly atmospheric chapter of the saga.
Crossing the Irish Sea in search of the truth, a daughter of the Bells uncovers a hidden inheritance, a forbidden romance and a family history rewritten by silence.
The Bell family steps into the restless 1970s — a decade of revolutions large and small. Love, ambition and the long shadow of the past converge in the saga's most intimate volume yet.
Alongside the Bell family saga, Debbie is writing a collection of unusual love stories of famous people — romances of celebrated figures that history never quite told. Stay in touch to be the first to know when the first volume is released.
Debbie Wastling hails from Yorkshire and writes British historical novels, though she has lived in Los Angeles for thirty years. Her novels — The Flying Scotsman Sings, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, The Sutherland Scandals, Irish Secrets & Lies and the forthcoming You Can't Always Get What You Want — follow the working-class Bell family across a century of British life.
Debbie began her career in radio and rock bands before turning her hand to directing musical theatre and teaching professional theatre in colleges and studios. She has been a prolific writer of plays, original musicals and music since high school.
In Los Angeles she won the Women-in-Theatre award for re-writing and editing Hamlet for an all-woman cast, and created the television show Dickens' Women.
From Edwardian railways to post-war Britain — each chapter rooted in real places, real moments, real voices.
Yorkshire rivers, Highland estates, Irish coastlines and London streets, drawn with novelist's eye and historian's care.
The Bells are working people whose loves, losses and stubborn hopes echo across generations of readers.
Real people and locations woven through the fiction — every detail earned through letters, photographs and archives.
Period images, family portraits and landscapes drawn from the worlds of the novels. More photographs will be added — each linked to its chapter and book — as the gallery grows.
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Sample reader sentiments — real reviews will appear here as readers share them.
A beautifully written family saga — the period detail is so vivid you can almost smell the coal-smoke on the platform.
Wastling writes ordinary lives with extraordinary tenderness. I cared about the Bells from the very first page.
Historical fiction at its warmest and most human. I cannot wait for the next instalment.
The series can be enjoyed in any order, but reading them chronologically — beginning with The Flying Scotsman Sings — lets you follow the Bells across the generations from the Edwardian era into the 1970s.
Every novel is published in paperback, ebook and audiobook editions so you can read or listen however suits you best.
Each book is grounded in extensive research into the period, places and people of Britain between 1870 and the 1970s. While the Bells themselves are fictional, the world they inhabit is drawn from authentic letters, photographs and archives.
You Can't Always Get What You Want is the next title in the Bell family series, and a new collection of unusual love stories about famous figures is currently in development.
Purchase links for paperback, ebook and audiobook editions will appear on each book card. In the meantime, please get in touch directly and Debbie will be delighted to help.
For book purchases, signings, book club visits or simply to share what you thought of the novels — please get in touch.
