Writing after 40 years away from Malta, Charles Gauci (‘Bishop’s Street’) said he knows nothing about Frans Sammut.

When Sammut passed away in 2011, this is what had been said and written about him:

Time of Malta: Great loss for Maltese literature.

Joseph Muscat: Frans Sammut was a patriotic writer who loved progressive thought and new ideas in the country.

Peter Serracino Inglott: The genius of Sammut was in his ability as of a Voltarian jester to transform a historical character into a sort of carnivalesque vector of an ironically larger-than-life mask.

Alfred Sant: His style of writing (...) demonstrated an unwavering and unparalleled sense of awareness to linguistic detail. This probably makes his style superior to that of any other modern writer of Maltese.

Labour Party: Malta lost its modern national author.

Nationalist Party: The PN saluted Sammut describing him as a pillar of (Maltese) literature whose legacy will be enjoyed by entire generations.

Lino Spiteri: (Sammut) was an intellectual in the true sense of the word... the novel Il-Gaġġa... has become an all-time classic.

Ġużé Stagno: Sammut gave us Il-Gaġġa, one of the greatest Maltese novels of all time.

Oliver Friggieri: His prose is always elegant, careful and considered, inspired by the modern notion that literature has to please in all its forms while being useful (...) in its content.

Henry Frendo: Warm and forthright, a worthy son of Żebbuġ, an ardent Francophile and a potentially acid polemicist in his own right, a patriot, passionate as always, Frans had a commandof English as much as of Maltese and he did not hold back any punches if he felt that he or someone else was being wronged.

Ġorġ Mallia: Frans Sammut was... the best Maltese novelist of the last 40 years of the last century.

Adrian Grima: He will be remembered for the unyielding sensuality of his literary prose (...) the intuitions, ideals and sheer beauty of the language (...), the memorable opening scene of his novel Samuraj, and its denouement.