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. The couple struggles with changes in society after WW1, trying to embrace becoming 'Bright Young Things' in a world of jazz music, silent movies, and women's emancipation. These people break with the conventions of their working-class parents, but the burning question, which keeps the reader wanting more, is 'Will Alice ever marry Amos?' (85,000 words).