I refer to the article entitled Pornography Lecture Which Pitted Anthony Burgess Against Conservative Malta to be Published, 45 Years On (June 27) which said that the lecture “is to be published in book form for the first time” although no details are given of the publisher.

For the record this is incorrect.

The lecture was actually published in 1973 or 1974 in Malta for (and by) the Malta Library Association on the initiative of Josie Attard Montalto who was then deputy University librarian. I believe Burgess had given the Malta Library Association the copyright, certainly the rights to publish this, as his public lecture (of which the publication was a transcript) was given as a result of an invitation by the MLA that hosted it.

I happen to remember this distinctly because I was a rather anarchic student then and had been commissioned by Attard Montalto to design the cover and the pamphlet. The attractive cover photograph was taken by David Cefai, a keen photography aficionado then, and the shot was taken in 9b Fredrick Street, Valletta.

I am puzzled by two claims in the article: (i) that it is about to be published for the first time (clearly misinformed) and (ii) that it is to be published in book form: the text is rather slim and would certainly not qualify as a ‘book’ but as a pamphlet.

In any case, I am pretty confident that copies were deposited at the University library and the National Library, so a simple check might have saved the Times of Malta from embarrassment.