A new biography on the colourful life of former Prime Minister Dom Mintoff is expected to hit bookstores next month once its author is released from prison.

The people who are now writing about him... are the same ones who were accusing Mintoff of destroying the party

Speaking to The Sunday Times from his prison cell, where he is serving time on fraud offences, Josef Grech said his book “will be the first biography yet published on Dom Mintoff and the only complete one, which doesn’t edit any part of his life”.

The book, titled Duminku Mintoff u Malta fi Żmienu, has a foreword by another prison inmate, former Labour MP Sandro Schembri Adami, who sat on the same benches with Mr Mintoff in Parliament during the last Labour government.

Mr Grech insisted his book would not censor some of the more recent episodes of Mr Mintoff’s life, which Labour were “uncomfortable” with.

“I will recount all the sufferings Mr Mintoff had to pass through and how he was practically ostracised by the party he had created and even called a traitor,” he said.

“The same people who are now writing about him and lauding his political career are the same people who until a few years ago were accusing Mintoff of destroying the party,” he added.

Since the death of the former Prime Minister in August, two books have been published about his life – Duminku Mintoff: Bejn Storja u Miti by Sergio Grech; and Mintoff: Il-Bniedem u l-Istorja, published by Labour’s publishing house and authored by Mario Cutajar, former deputy general secretary of the General Workers’ Union.

According to Mr Grech, these two books, which also include a collection of articles about Mr Mintoff, left out significant parts of the man’s history.

“For example, there were two attempts on Mintoff’s life, not one. My book will have all the details as recounted to me by the Perit himself during the many meetings we used to have,” he claimed.

Although Mr Grech is also the founder of the Fundazzjoni Duminku Mintoff – set up just a day after his death – he said his 800-page book was a personal initiative and had nothing to do with the foundation.

Although it was first thought that the foundation had the backing of the Labour Party and Mr Mintoff’s family, both had come out issuing public statements to distance themselves from it.

Mr Mintoff’s eldest daughter, Yana, had even asked the police to investigate the foundation’s authenticity.

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