There is one particular thing that fascinates Judge Giovanni Bonello more than anything else: Digging up the past and exposing it.

In his latest book Nostalgias Of Malta, to be launched today, Judge Bonello will release photographs taken by German photographer Geo Fürst.

Mr Fürst was a prisoner of war in Malta during World War I, married Lily Debono and settled in Malta. He was both an artist and a photographer and had published three books as well as several photographs.

"A local collector, Wilfred Pirotta, acquired a huge cache of original photographs in small format, most of which were unpublished and he kindly allowed me to use any of them. In fact, the book contains roughly one eighth of the material I had at my disposal," Judge Bonello said.

The book is split into four sections: The sea, people, events and towns and villages.

"What strikes you in the photos is the simple 'poorer' way of life," Judge Bonello noted. "It shows sustainable development with houses on a human scale. Some scenes, such as those of Marsalforn, are unrecognisable a mere 70 years later," he said.

Other things that strike you on seeing the photos is that one hardly ever sees any cars while men are always seen wearing hats or caps.

Though the photos are black and white, they have been scanned in colour and that gives them a lot of depth. The book is published by Midsea books Ltd under the wings of Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti.

Judge Bonello said that although Mr Fürst published several hundreds of photos during his lifetime, not a single one depicts Gozo.

The book has minimal captions as he wanted the images "to speak for themselves, rather than to risk losing them in a grinding translation from sheer poetry to prose".

Where the images were given captions by Mr Fürst, these have been retained in their original spelling and form.

"My intention was not to edit a coffee-table volume of overwhelming images, but a pregnant historical register of a fast-disappearing Malta, as frozen on film by a sensitive psychoanalyst of the national spirit during the inter-war years," he said.