The Tilthammer

Sheila Lancaster has written a second novel, The Tilthammer, set in the Birmingham ironmaking industry of the 1700’s. The novel begins in 1740 with England still a feudal society, but the tilthammer of the iron industry has begun to pound out a rhythm which is to grow increasingly louder over the century. Even without the bloodshed of the French Revolution, England is to suffer drastic and often painful change - from the insularity of a rural society into the workshop of the world. The leaders of that revolution were men like Joss Colby: ruthless, determined and obsessed with a firm vision of…