Malta Books

Having enjoyed 'Finest Hour', the authors' previous book on the summer of 1940, I was curious to see whether or not they could repeat their successful character driven narrative over a much wider field than the Battle of Britain. 'End of the Beginning' covers the pivotal year of 1942 when the tide of World War Two finally began to turn against Hitler. The book covers a wide range of topics from the heroic defence of Malta and bombing raids over Germany, to the Dieppe raid to Churchill's difficult relationship with the senior British officers in the desert trying to fend off Rommel's drive on Egypt. Yet, as with 'Finest Hour', by far the most impressive thing is the fascinating mix of characters whose individual recollections form the backbone of the book. Their personal accounts of the unique rituals of tank warfare in the desert, night bombing over Germany and volunteering to reboard a stricken Malta bound tanker to name but three examples bring starkly to life the wider themes of the war in 1942. This approch brings home to me how very ordinary people rose to the challenge of war. This is most clearly shown by the accounts of various Nottinghamshire soldiers in the run up to El Alamein, the climax of the book. Their detailed accounts show that however great the generals, wars are still ultimately won by individuals who clear minefields with a bayonet or slug it out in individual tank to tank duels under the desert sun. One of the recurring themes of the book is that none of the interviewees thought that they were doing anything untoward. Judged by the standard of the times this may have been so. Sixty years on, their heroism and scarifices are even more starkly outlined. 'End of the Beginning' is a fascinating account of war at the ground level illuminating the high politics of the Anglo-American relationship. If, like me, you do not know a great deal about this period of the war, the book will prove an invaluable and entertaining read.

This book is one of the best ever written about the travails of the Allies, particularly the British, as they struggled to stop the Nazi's unchecked aggression in the early days of WWII. The authors have woven a colorful chronological tapestry of individual soldiers', airmens' and sailors' stories, entwined with the broader perspectives and struggles of Churchill and Roosevelt as they approach the strategic challenges of a global war. The text follows the various central characters as they fit into the chronology, so each ones story is told against the backdrop of the overall war as it unfolds. This gives the book an almost novel quality, captivating the reader as these personalities tell their stories. The reader is given a foxhole look at the very bloody and unusual warfare conducted in the desert, following enlisted men and junior officers as they try to outwit the genius of Field Marshal Irwin Rommel at the very pointed end of the spear. Most of the first-person testimony is seen for the first time and is riveting in its realism, making the reader feel as if they are actually witnessing the battles, skirmishes and situations confronting the combatants. As a result of historians generally paying scant attention to this period, both the strategic and tactical issues discussed make for particularly insightful and entertaining reading. The air war waged above and the convoys being sunk in attempting to re-supply Malta, and the very unique warfare in the desert are particulalry interesting. This book is easy to read and is very well researched, thus bringing the reader along on the airplanes, ships and armored vehicles as they are wielded as instruments of battle. This book is an absolute "must read" for anyone interested in the first halting successes of the Allies as they learn to meet and defeat the Axis powers.

This short book is an effort to provide a ground view of the turning point of the war in North Africa. Focusing on the recollections of number of veterans, the authors depict the sequence of events leading up to the defeat of the Afrika Corps at El Alamein. This story has been told many times previously, and often better. The effort to present the ground view is laudable but not particularly novel. There is little effort to integrate the personal accounts with broader events. The authors also diffuse the impact of the story by including some extraneous events such as the Dieppe raid. The most novel aspect of the book is the detailing of the success of German intelligence in penetrating British battle plans.

The End of the Beginning covers World War II on the western European front from May 25 to November 10, 1942. It's written in almost novel form as it follows certain real people in the various theaters of the war, so it's not as dry as some history books can be. However, the effect of the writing is diluted by some of the varying topics the book covers, lessening the impact and bringing down the quality of the book.

Clayton and Craig have an easy-going style that draws the reader into it. The "characters" in the book come from all walks of life, from the British aristocracy to a nurse on the island of Malta to Winston Churchill himself. The authors spent a lot of time interviewing many of their subjects, while other parts of the narrative are taken from war diaries and previous interviews that had been conducted. They weave all of this into a wonderful tapestry that's sure to garner interest.

The chapters are set up to cover a certain number of days each. Some are only one day, while others span a week or two. Inside each chapter, many different events are covered during 1942. The narrative jumps back and forth among these events, allowing us to get to know the people involved, the horrors that they faced and the bravery that they exhibited. Sometimes, such as in the case of Mimi Cortis, a nurse on Malta, it was the bravery of just surviving day to day. All of the stories are interesting and make you want to read more about them.

A number of the chapters have a theme that uses two events that contrast with each other to make a point. In one chapter, the authors contrast a bombing mission over Germany that results in the pilot being captured and interred in a POW camp with a Jewish woman who is arrested on the island of Guernsey and her trip on train after train until she finally arrives at Auschwitz. This chapter also puts together the deportation of the Jews from occupied territories, and the treatment that they had to endure, with the British bombing of civilians in Germany. It's a very powerful chapter as we see man's inhumanity toward man demonstrated. Yet we also see the apparent necessity of one of these against the barbarity of the other.

Another strong contrast is the chapters talking about Churchill's visit to Stalin to try and convince him that a second front (namely, an invasion of France) was not possible in 1942. Stalin questioned the bravery of British troops because of this and they had many heated discussions. Also in this chapter, though, is the story of a convoy that attempts to get supplies to Malta. The convoy is bombed, stalked by U-Boats, and attacked by some surface ships. Many cargo ships go down, but one of them refuses to sink. The crew, along with rescued crewmembers from other ships, desperately work to keep the ship afloat and get it to Malta. They finally succeed. The scene in this chapter constantly switches back and forth between these two events, effectively putting the lie to Stalin's statements about British bravery.

There are some real problems with this book that bring it down considerably, though. The first is the scattered nature of the narrative. While all of the events and characters are interesting to read about, the scattershot approach makes for a very disjointed read. The scene jumps from Egypt to Malta to England to Germany, back to England and then back to the Middle East. Just as you are getting used to one event, it's on to something else. While I never lost interest in the book, it did become a bit annoying.

The second problem is related to this in a way. Some events are given short shrift because of this approach. The battles in Egypt and Libya are given lots of time. Malta has its fair share, too. Life around a bomber base is detailed pretty nicely as well. But other areas, while mentioned, are neglected to the point that I have to conclude the only reason they were included was for completeness' sake. The raid on Dieppe, for example, is over in a few pages. The main character that the authors use to discuss Dieppe is an American Ranger who was in the more successful aspect of this operation. Most of the mistakes and catastrophic results of the main raid are told in hindsight and don't get that many pages. Of 4963 Canadians who landed on the beaches, 3369 were killed, captured, or wounded. But it only gets a few pages.

The other aspect that gets so little discussion that it's a wonder it was included is the political wrangling between the Americans and British. Clayton and Craig talk about how the Lend Lease, where military equipment was "lent" to the British on the promise that they would pay when they were able to, was partially designed to keep Britain economically dependent on the United States so that the British Empire would fall and Britain would lose its world dominance after the war. This is a potentially explosive issue, screaming for analysis. But it gets only a few pages and is never discussed in great detail.

One would not be wrong to think this book is mostly about the battles in the Middle East. While other subjects are covered, that gets the majority of the spotlight. Sometimes I wished that they had just stayed there and covered that in even more detail and left the other insights to other books. As good as this book is, it would have been so much better with a little bit of concentration. As it is, I can't give it four stars. But I would give it 3.75 if I could.

David Roy

Once again the talented combination of Tim Clayton and Phil Craig have produced a new and exciting account of a well know period of the Second World War. Their newest book, apparently the second in a trilogy designed to mark the 60th anniversaries of Britain's three most important moments during WW2, covers the year 1942, the turning point in the Allied camp.

Following on from their excellent book 'Finest Hour', we again meet up with some familiar faces from that story. Peter Vaux, now fighting with the famed Desert Rats, Edith Heap working with R.A.F. bomber crews in England and Ken Lee still flying fighters in the R.A.F. but now over the desert. The authors have used the same winning formula with their last book and we follow these people and their stories along with a few others through the events of 1942.

We experience the fighting in the desert against Rommel and his men. We read how the British tanks are out classed by the German panzers and how the R.A.F. try to protect the Allies and harry the advancing German and Italian units as they advance towards Alexandria. We read about the desperate battles on the sea and in the sky to get convoys into Malta. We hear the stories of the inhabitants of that bombed out Island, hanging on desperately against the might of the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica during daily bombing missions and with the fear of invasion hanging over their heads.

The story takes us back to Europe and we learn of the fate of many of the R.A.F. bomber crews fighting their own lonely war over the dark skies of occupied Europe. We read about the terrible tragedy at Dieppe and the political infighting amongst the leaders of the allied nations. Most of the story has been told before, however there are some elements that most readers will find new and interesting. I was not aware of the American intelligence blunder that gave away many Allied secrets to the Germans nor was I aware of the true mastermind behind the defence at El Alamein.

These things and more are told here for the first time and we read the stories of those who experienced this frightening but also uplifting period with a mixture of awe and amazement. This is a good book and in just over 400 pages we get a good feel for what it was like for many participants to be involved in this most important period in British history. One story that I won't forget and found hard to believe was the account of a young Jewish woman that was deported to Auschwitz from Guernsey. You read this story and you ask yourself 'how could this happened?'

I am sure that most people who enjoy popular history will get a buzz out of this book. "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps, the end of the beginning" - Winston Churchill, 10th November, 1942

An excellent scholarly account of the Knights of St. John, Rhodes, and Malta. Very well researched, and I found the writing interesting and exciting, although others may find it tough to slog through. Absolutely the definitive work on the order.

In 1096, when the first Crusaders arrived in Jerusalem, they discovered the Hospital of St. John, which healed the wounds of the heroic knights. It would be this encounter that led the hospitallers to rally around their leader Brother Gerard de Saxo and created the Order of St. John. The knights returned to Europe, but they never forgot the kindness of the hospital that healed their wounded. After the first Crusade, the Order grew in importance and received many appreciative donations that helped solidify the future for the Order. The activities of the Order of St. John throughout its history assumed the role as the defenders of Christianity. The Order gained importance and power because the knights of the order fought bravely against the vigorous Islamic world. The knights defended the Holy Land for a long time, but were finally expelled at their last stronghold at Acre in 1291. The Order of St. John moved to Cyprus for fifteen years, then Rhodes, and lastly Malta.

If you are going to read Bradford's The Great Siege: Malta 1565, I would highly recommend that you read something on the Knights of Malta and their origins (this book would be a good choice). I give the book four stars because I really enjoyed reading Attard's Knights of Malta than this particular book. Perhaps, it was the trendy front over, the fewer pages, the comfortable feeling folding the pages or his better storytelling of the Great Siege in my opinion.

Sire has done a wonderful job of capturing the deep history and tradition of the Order of St John and its shaping the history of Europe and defending the Faith. I was particularly pleased that Sire had researched the book in the Library of the Grand Priory of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in London - the old Priory of Clerkenwell. The Most Venerable Order in the British Realm and its parent the Sovereign Order of St John, of Rhodes, and of Malta are truly the inheritors of the deep and rich tradition of the Order of St John as it has come down to us through the nine millennia of western history. I was also pleased that the author devoted an entire closing section to the future of the Sovereign Order and its plans to re-establish its presence on the island of Malta at Fort St Angelo. In fact the Order has now done just that and I think Sire deserves congrtulations on researching not only the Order's history but shall I say the present and future of the Order - into the next century and into the final century of its first millennia. With the granting of observer status to the UN in 1994, the Sovereign Order of St John has deepened its roots in the life and history of the world that will continue for another 900 years.

The Order of St John, in all four of its allied manifestations (The Sovereign Military and Hospitaller Order; The Most Venerable Order; the Johaniterorden, and in the Order in the Netherlands)has a tremendous charitable benefit to the world, in its hospital works, its ambulance work through the St John Ambulance Brigade in 44 countries, its first aid training and its nursing and health care work in communities around the globe is a wonderful example of humanitarian service. The author captures this richness and I can only hope he'll produce more material on the Order of St John and its impending 900th anniversary in 1999.

If you are interested in an indepth history of this ancient religious order and its impact on Europe and the Catholic Church then this book is a good bet for you. Sire provides tons of historical data and you can tell that this text was very well researched. Having said that, Knights of Malta was a somewhat difficult read for me. The author assumes the reader has some fluency in Latin and in French as there are no translations of certain passages of text. Likewise the writing style is more reminiscent of a college text book. I can't fault Sire in providing so much historical detail but in so doing, the overall feel of this book is very dry.

Well, this work is certainly comprehensive, not to say exhaustive, so I give it three stars in deference to that. However, this is a recent piece of history writing, and it really doesn't show. Like the many 19th century histories you can find at your local library, Sire's book is conspicuously lacking in distance from the subject. He frequently displays a partisanship (I think) unsuitable for a historian, lacing his writing with condemnation of the "dishonorable" actions of the French knights and the paints a winning portrait of the SPanish. (I am particularly thinking of the section on Juan de Homedes, 1550's.) He presents his arguement as a 'debunking' of de Homedes' bad press, but never really addresses the issue. In short, I think the author is more interested in dreaming of the days of chivalry than seriously re-examining the controvertial role of the Knights.

After looking over 5 or 6 Malta books, the two I took with me and used the most were the Rough Guide and the AAA Spiral Guide. This book by Lonely Planet is fine and thorough but comes in second to the other two. However, this book does have the most complete list of feast days (60 or more a year in Malata?).

I spent eight months in Malta, and ended up using this book in tandem with the Rough Guide version. Like all guide books, neither is 100% accurate, and that's life. Rough Guide is better for history, culture, art, etc. There will be much more info on any given sight there, but Lonely Planet has the practicalities a little more fleshed out. And as usual, the maps are slightly better. Depends on what you're looking for, really.

This is an excellent book...however there are a few places he missed. The pub in Mellieha that has FANtastic ribs and steak,
and the excellent French restaurant in Marsaskala. (The waiter here knows so much about the fresh fish you'd swear he'd caught them himself!)

If you're a scuba diver, Dive Med in Marsaskala gave us the BEST service!

The Armada Campaign 1588 : The Great Enterprise Against England (Campaign, 86) by Angus Konstam, and Howard Gerrard (Illustrator) is written in the fine tradition of the Osprey Campaign Series. It is written in the traditional format and describes the immediate causes and effects of the battles as well as the battle itself.

The book is well written and easy to follow. The maps are very helpful and do a good job of putting the narrative into context. When one finishes, one has a basic understanding of the wheres, whys and hows of the attempted invasion of Britain. The fact that the British protagonists are names which bring forth images of dashing and gallant pirates, such as Francis Drake, doesn't hurt.

The Armada Campaign 1588 is a decent summary of the Spanish attempt to invade England in the late 16th Century. As per the standard Osprey Campaign format, Angus Konstam provides succinct but accurate sections on the origins of the campaign, the opposing leaders, opposing plans and opposing warships. A detailed campaign chronology, blow-by-blow battle account and epilogue complete this survey of the Spanish expedition. Konstam concludes that the Spanish fleet maintained fairly tight defensive formations throughout the week-long fighting and while the English had the upper hand in gunnery and maneuvering, the English were unable to defeat the armada outright. Rather, the fortuitous fireship attack off Calais forced the Spanish to abandon the amphibious part of their mission and severe Atlantic storms demolished the once-mighty fleet on its return to Spain. The maps and illustrations that support the text are excellent.

However the problem with this volume is an over-focus on the English-Spanish naval battles in the channel. This campaign was merely an episode in a very long Anglo-Spanish struggle for hegemony, not an isolated event. For example, Drake's pre-emptive raid on Cadiz in 1587 inflicted far more damage on the preparations for the Armada than this account suggests. Although Konstam provides a good order of battle table on the English and Spanish fleets, there is no information on the Duke of Parma's Spanish in the Netherlands or the Dutch rebels. In fact, the Dutch fleet was far from insignificant in the campaign because it served to impede Parma's ability to mount an amphibious operation from the Netherlands. Certainly the large Spanish galleons in the Armada were no solution to dealing with shallow-draft Dutch warships that could interdict the Spanish invasion barges. Nor does Konstam mention the 18,973 soldiers that sailed with the Armada in his order of battle (there were five brigade-size tercios with the fleet). Another area that is totally ignored is that of finances and logistics. Nobody had ever supplied a fleet for extended operations with gunpowder weapons before and ammunition shortages were a major limiting factor, particularly for the British. While Konstam mentions the "Royal ships" (ie. warships owned by the crown), he does not mention how expensive it was to maintain a standing navy. Queen Elizabeth had to de-mobilize parts of the fleet in late 1587 when the Armada was delayed and then time re-mobilization in 1588 with the expected arrival of the Spaniards. Disease was another factor that caused attrition of trained crews sitting around in ports. All of these are examples of a broader view of the campaign, rather than just warships slugging it out in the channel.

Nor does the author spend much effort in discussing follow-up operations or the impact of the failure of the Armada. The English expedition to Portugal in 1589 is ignored, as is the Spanish intervention in the French civil wars in 1588-9. The Spanish expeditions of 1596-7 are mentioned, but not detailed. The loss of fifty or more warships and 15,000 or more crewmen was a catastrophe for Spain that is not spelled out in this account. King Philip II sent the hurled the best force he could afford at England and failed utterly. Reconstituting a similar force was beyond his means. Finally, the Armada Campaign was a landmark in naval history due to the fact that it set the pattern for the next two centuries of fleet battles.

Those especially interested in the specific intersections between Winston Churchill's fabled career and Malta's military role leading up to and during the two great wars of the twentieth century will find this book quite useful.

The author, writing from a British Empire perspective, keeps on the strick task expressed by the book's title and, as a result, does not give much attention to either the general history of Malta or how its ordinary citizens handled the intense bombardments and food shortages of World War II.

If you have a Malta wing to your library, buy this book. If you have a Churchill wing, use your discretion.

This book describes what Churchill felt about Malta and it's people and what those people felt about Churchill. As the corollary to the book's title indicates, it was a very special relationship.

Churchill was one of only two men to hold cabinet positions at the outbreak of both WW1 and WW2. In Churchill's case he just happened to be First Lord of the Admiralty on both occasions. Whilst there had been other jobs in between, it was his own understanding of naval matters which made Churchill the right man for that particular job as war loomed. With Malta being so strategically placed in the Mediterranean, her survival against invasion was crucial.

Churchill visited Malta on 6 separate occasions spanning a 40 year period which included two world wars. In so doing, he came to understand and appreciate the nation and the aspirations of it's people. In 1907, he sought to create a greater awareness of what the country wished to achieve for itself as an independent nation. Many years later, as Prime Minister, the bonds grew ever stronger as he sought to supply and defend the tiny state against overwhelming Axis forces.

The author was born in Malta in 1934 when his father was serving in the Royal Navy and this is his second study of Maltese elements of British history of the early 20th Century. In this particular work, he has made extensive use of Churchill's private papers plus government records in order to provide yet another important contribution to the complex jigsaw that is British history.

With an immensely readable style of writing, this book becomes harder to put down, the further you progress. I would consider it essential reading for all those with a wider interest in Britain's history, especially her military history of last Century, plus those with a more refined interest in either Churchill or Malta - or both.

NM

good, I like her work. I do not like her contemproary works as well. It is her great history research that I appreciate. I hope she keeps writing.

I wish I could give this book four and a half stars. I can't give it five because of a middle section, dealing with initiation into the use of magic, that drags badly.

It is no snerk to say that the book is based upon a social movement -- namely, the growth of abolitionist sentiment in England from the mid 18th century into the first quarter of the 19th century. This book culminates in 1807 with the passage of the bill abolishing the slave trade by ships under the English flag.

The romance element (not the description of human love) is minimal. There is ample sexual tension, but very little sex. Putney really stretched her wings with this book and produced a result that is well beyond the conventions of the genre -- well beyond, in fact, even her earlier two books in the "Guardians" series.

Unfortunately, this may well result in her established readership not liking the book, while since it has been marketed as romance, the book is unlikely to reach a wider readership in the general fiction field.

Nevertheless, she is certainly to be congratulated for having taken the risk.

The child, Nikolai Gregorio, survived in the streets by stealing and using his untrained mage powers. Eventually he decided to rob the Macrae, who promptly recognizes him as a fledging Guardian and offers to take him back to England to raise him as a foster son. Unfortunately, on their way back to England, the ship is taken over by pirates and Nikolai is forced into slavery. The Macrae searches for him, but fails to find him and eventually gives up the search. Escaping slavery as he grew to adulthood, Nikolai vows two things - to end slavery by any means possible and to have vengence on the Macrae. Finding his way to England, Nikolai realizes that the Macrae is dead and decides to kidnap his daughter, Jean, in order to carry out his twisted revenge. Jean, herself a powerful Guardian, doesn't surrender meekly, but is stolen away regardless. During a tremendous storm at sea, Jean manages to save the ship and the lives of everyone on board. By this time, both Jean and Nikolai realize their strong feelings for each other and Jean joins Nikolai in his quest to hasten the end to slavery. Using their magical powers and aid from ancestors of Nikolai, Jean and Nikolai begin "time-hopping" in order to bring about events that would hasten the laws against slavery.

On her dedication page, Ms. Putney implores her friends who are authors to stop her if she should ever decide again to write about a social movement. My God, I hope they listen to her. I have read all of Mary Jo Putney's novels. While some are more entertaining than others, all of them have managed to hold my interest to some degree. This book commits the cardinal sin of being just flat out boring. I hate it when authors use their novels as platforms for their various beliefs and causes. (Christine Feehan is famous for this - writing about everything from strange dog breeds to hyping a real life bed and breakfast in California.) Instead of reading a romance, I feel like I am reading an Info-merical. Sure, slavery was pretty horrible, but if that was what I wanted to read about, I would read some real life works about the Underground Railroad or Harriet Beecher Stowe. As it was, I wasn't sure what was historical truth and what was fiction in this book. I know the romance certainly took a backseat to the slavery angle, and I became quite disgusted with the entire story about halfway through. I continued reading it, hoping the book would "right" itself, but it never happened. Don't waste your money on this yawner. Thank heavens I waited until paperback to buy it.

Mary Jo Putney, a wonderful writer of romance and fantasy, has set herself a challenging goal. In A DISTANT Magic she weaves together the romance and fantasy of her GUARDIAN SERIES with the history of the abolition of slavery plus a bit of time travel.

The Guardians series (A KISS OF FATE and STOLEN MAGIC) is set in the mid 1700's with main characters who are members of the British and Scottish aristocracy and whose families have, for centuries, wielded magical power drawn from nature. These families have banded together vowing to use their powers to help others rather than for personal gain.

While the prior books in the series did touch on particular historical events, they were first and foremost about romance. A DISTANT MAGIC is first and foremost about abolition but the story is told in a fascinating way through its framing within the Guardian world. It is a thought provoking tale and revels some things about this time in history which startled me.

In Marseilles Jean McCrae, a fiery Scottish Guardian, is kidnapped by Captain Nikolai Gregorio, a Maltese ship owner who seeks revenge against the McCrae family for a wrong he believes the MaCrae family did him. Nikolai, who was once captured by pirates and spent time as a galley slave, has dedicated himself to freeing as many galley slaves as he can, sailing the Mediterranean to find them. He is appalled to find an irresistible attraction to Jean. Through a fantastical set of circumstances, Nikolai and Jean join forces to travel through time supporting the key moments of the abolition movement.

While I typically read romance novels for escapist relaxation, I was fascinated by the concepts here: the parrallel worlds, the magical initiation, the importance of individual contributions to historical events, and especially the idea of like-minded people offering each other support across time and space.

I understand that those looking for uncluttered escapism may be disappointed with this book. And I rate it with four rather than five stars because it was impossible for Ms. Putney to fully develop her characters here as in past novels. However, she succeeds remarkably and produces a very satisfying and thought provoking book.

The third book in the Guardian series has moved away from pure romantic fantasy with a touch of history to more historical romance with a touch of fantasy. If you expect more scottish castles and unicorns, you may be disappointed. I read this book first, and went back to read A Touch of Magic and Stolen Magic because I liked the author's style. A Distant Magic is my favorite because it is more complex. I also think time travel, when used well, is a great plot device. Very entertaining!

I bought this product during my recent trip to Malta. The only good thing about this course is the audio material. Other than that it is totally insufficient. It's totally low beginners material. The best course so far, which I also purchased during my trip to Malta is "Learn Maltese, Why not?" both the textbook and the workbook. The only thing is that the latter does not come with audio files. But then again it makes it very clear how letters are pronounced, and this book and watching an online Maltese TV channel does it. I paid 32 euros for the Beginning Maltese course in Malta, and in my opinion it's only worth 7 euros, if not less, just because of the CDs that come with it. Lame work!!

This set of two tape cassettes and one thin book was written by a professor at the university in Valetta. The book provides some grammatical explanations and a middling amount of vocabulary that will help anyone who wishes to pursue further study of the language. It is not a detailed, complete course. It is, to my knowledge, the only treatment of Maltese that allows the student to hear the language, and this alone sets it above all competitors.
Explanations are clear, the recordings, all of them transcribed in the book,are also of excellent quality.
A search of the internet turns up a respectable number of sites by Maltese or expatriot Maltese with stories, essays and poetry, and this, I think, is proof that the language is still alive and vital--important, even though most Maltese are fluent in English and many in Italian.
While Amazon no longer stocks it, it may be available by mail from the author--that is how I obtained it--or from the university.
See my review of "Teach Yourself Maltese."

Excellent coverage of the Napoleonic Wars and of World War II, okay on World War I and the interwar years, rather sparse coverage of other periods. The listings of events during World War II become a bit repetitive and dreary. Nowhere in the book did I feel a flash of insight, or that something new had been illustrated, it is more a recitation of events. Dry reading.

The best feature of the book is the excellent historical photos of the Maltese harbors and of visiting warships, going back to the late 19th Century. I'd have enjoyed them more if they were reproduced in larger size, but still fascinating.

It's a fine work but too synthetic and scarcely spiritual to be a pilgrim's guide.

I am very interested in WWII history in general, and Malta in particular, but this book was a bit disappointing. It is thoroughly researched, in terms of "Capt xxx of Squadron xx shot down Lt Werner Schmidt of JG87 at 4:45pm" etc, but as a pilot, I don't think the author knows much about aircraft, so the narrative has more of a "daily newspaper" tone than an aviation history tone. I would have liked to read more about actual aircraft operations, written by an expert.
Also, by the way, it's not really specifically only about Canadian pilots, which is OK with me, and the title 'Hell Island' is unfortunate: my Maltese friends were somewhat offended.