What is the book about?

Amazing Maltese women is a celebration of incredibly courageous, resilient Maltese women who followed their heart and let no one dampen their determination. It is in comic-style with beautiful ink and watercolour illustrations.

What inspired you to write this book?

My daughter's bookshelves have for the past few years been groaning under the weight of books about women who changed the world Rebel girls, Fantastically great women, Big dreams and so on. At one point I thought, hey, "What about Maltese women? Is it possible that over the centuries there were no brave, talented women who left a mark on Malta? Has our society been shaped only by men?" So I started researching and I kept coming across Maltese women from all eras and all walks of life, and I thought it was urgently important  to write them back into our history. I wanted children to get to know that Malta too has its own gutsy women, who have the courage to go against the current and challenge the system.

That sounds exciting ... do we know any of the women?

Some of the names of the women in the book may be familiar, but most are unsung, like Clara La Spatara, a much sought-after blacksmith at the time of the Knights or Mary Ellul who had superhero strength and saved people in World War II or Maria de Dominici, one of the first ever recorded female artists in the world.

So are they all from the past?

No. The book cuts across the ages: from Tina the prehistoric Maltese woman who lived in a very equal and fair society in Ġgantija, Gozo to Malta's first woman Cabinet minister Agatha Barbara; from Madame Manfre, Malta's very own Coco Chanel to wartime newspaper editor Mabel Strickland. I wanted to show children that some of these women, who had followed their heart and had let no one dampen their determination, did not exist only in the past but one can meet or bump into them even today, like Esther Azzopardi, who's a Uefa football referee or Joan Abela, who saved the Notarial Archives.

Are they all feel-good characters?

The book mentions Helen Muscat, who fought for cancer patients' rights and she then died of cancer; Amy Camilleri Zahra, who had to have her legs amputated but did not let that dampen her fighting spirit and Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was assassinated when she was uncovering stories of corruption in government. These are all very painful topics but I believe children do not live in Disneyland. It is important for them to know what is happening around them in a language they can understand. The better we prepare them for the real world, the better citizens and leaders our society will have in future. 

How did you go about the research?

There are precious little books about Maltese women. So I started asking around: historians, art historians, seasoned politicians, doctors, journalists. Had they met any inspiring women? In the end the list grew so long that I had to shortlist the top 17 most resilient women. Of course, the book truly came to life really when artist Marisa Attard came on board as the illustrator. Her ink and watercolour illustrations made it possible to narrate the story comic-like, so the story reads almost like a conversation. Marisa carried out her own meticulous research, so that her drawings are faithful to every era the women lived in.  We then worked with designer Faye Paris, whose layout brought the book together - so it was an all-girls team!

Is this a girls-only book?

Absolutely NOT. Maltese children - be it boys or girls - need women role models. We live in a society where we think power is associated with men. Well, that is wrong - because societies thrive when there is a balance of power. And this is a book which can help start redress the imbalance we have of a power structure made up of men in suits. So this is definitely a book for all the family.

So is there a sequel in the pipeline?

Merlin Publishers seek to create conversation with their books because as publishers they believe that this is what makes society healthy - in fact this is why they took up the idea of this book immediately. I'm hoping that this book will get people talking and encourage them to come forward and talk about other forgotten women heroes who left a mark in different fields. If you know an amazing woman please send an email on: [email protected]

'Amazing Maltese women' is available for sale from all leading bookshops or directly online from merlinpublishers.com