Tilt

This historical novel in Barrington Stoke’s teen series begins in the Italian city of Pisa in 1298 as architects and stone masons struggle to solve the mystery of the leaning tower.  Netta’s father is the Head Mason, last of the Pisano family line of sculptors and stone carvers, and the responsibility of righting the tower’s tilt rests on him.  Netta, bored with housework and dreading marriage and motherhood, longs to help, to solve the engineering problems and to become an architect.  Gradually, with an understanding father and by means of her own skill, observation and thought Netta is able to achieve those dreams.

This is a ‘what-if’ historical novel that uses a real setting and situation and a fictional heroine to address issues of gender in a male dominated world, the ‘hidden women’ of history and the question of whether female ambition, creativity and practical ability would have had any outlet beyond the domestic world.  It is a lot to address in a short novel aimed at struggling, reluctant and dyslexic readers aged 12+ but, whilst the subject matter may not appeal widely, it is very satisfying to see such a positive portrayal of the skills of building and engineering and to consider the possibility of a woman fulfilling her ambitions within that world.