Judging from the feedback I received following my narrative about the French in Malta, people were surprised and even shocked to learn about these events.

Their perception of the period was different from what they now read. They followed with much interest the cause that inflicted so much pain and death to the Maltese. They were, most of all, incredulous about the number of Maltese deaths.

Charles Xuereb’s reaction (‘Manipulation and history’, The Sunday Times of Malta, January 12) was expected. However, instead of tackling Hardman and Testa, his preferred choice fell on theorising, manipulation and romanticism.

“Their interpretation may not have produced the best account of history,” he wrote. The suffering our forefathers went through as a result of Napoleon’s invasion is not an interpretation. It is a fact. That invasion was not about strategy, although that was how it originated. It was about greed: the treasures of the Order, so smoothly taken over; the money in the Università dei Grani. And then, mission accomplished, Napoleon departs for Egypt, leaving a tiny island with its 100,000 people to fend for itself.

Famine was not the result of the insurrection. In fact, the insurrection helped the French besieged behind the walls to preserve food. And they made the food last even more by just expelling the Maltese from the cities, thus compounding the problem in the countryside by having more mouths to feed.

Napoleon had no answer to a blockade of Malta by Nelson. My account was not an interpretation of Hardman and Testa. If it were, there must be a different view. Perhaps Xuereb may care to share his.

I just thought that this part of our history was not being given its due importance. We do not lack space for any monument we fancy, yet for some reason this most important first step towards statehood remains without one. In my view, I even consider the date of the insurrection, September 2, to merit national day status. Surely the death of 20,000 Maltese justifies this consideration? This figure would have been a tremendous tragedy for any country; for Malta it was a catastrophe.