A report from Times of Malta covering the event.

Warwick Bailey first landed in Malta in 1960 with a briefcase full of English book samples and he loved it so much he has returned 30 times since.

Mr Bailey, then aged 23, was a representative of Hodder and Stoughton, and he would go from one bookshop to another in Valletta, Sliema and Paola taking orders for books, including Enid Blyton’s Famous Five.

“It was always lovely to come here for work, and I never got bored of the island. We used to supply most of the island with educational books, and I would drive all around. I can tell you I have seen Malta change dramatically, especially young people’s lives,” Mr Bailey, 77, told Times of Malta on his 30th visit.

In 1964, he helped organise an exhibition of Hodder and Stoughton’s books at the Catholic institute in Floriana, including the popular Teach Yourself Maltese by Joseph Aquilina from the Teach Yourself Books series.

Technology was bound to develop, but books will not die

Six years later, the British publishing house teamed up with Progress Press and other publishers for Malta’s first book exhibition. The Sunday Times of Malta of May 3, 1970, had reported that the exhibition, at the Preluna Hotel in Sliema, consisted of between 2,000-3,000 books by seven leading publishers, including Progress Press.

Miss Mabel Strickland, who opened the exhibition, said she hoped the exhibition would be a forerunner of many other similar ones.

At the end of the week, when the exhibition was over, Times of Malta reported that the event was a success and the publishers had decided to hold an “even bigger” exhibition the following year.

Gilbert Lamb, of Sphere Books, had noted that judging from the covers, the Maltese were greatly interested in cooking – something that is true to date.

Mr Bailey was reported as saying that the exhibition was “definitely a success”.

This exhibition turned into an annual event and was held until 1980 at the Phoenicia Hotel Ballroom, in Valletta, where publishers would showcase their books and take orders.

The number of publishers increased from some 20 publishing imprints to 80, including local publishers, through the years.

The exhibition was attended by all – the public, booksellers and even authors who lived in Malta, like Nicholas Monsarrat, who penned The Kappillan of Malta.

During his visits here, Mr Bailey befriended Ronnie Agius, then manager of the publications department at Progress Press, and later as managing director of Allied Newspapers Ltd and chairman of Progress Press, and they remained friends to this day.

Between 1960 and 1980, Mr Bailey returned to Malta just about every year, and although he retired 12 years ago, he keeps returning to the same hotel where the exhibition used to be held.

“You wouldn’t recognise the Malta I knew then. But I have visited the island some 30 times, so I have seen it change throughout the years,” he said.

The built-up areas were unrecognisable, but as with any other city, the landscape was bound to change over 50 years.

Mr Bailey said books were still a “major vital part” of people’s lives.

“Not everybody wants to sit down and read an electronic book. On our way here on the airplane and when we went by the swimming pool, there were more people reading actual physical books.

“I will never get a Kindle like my wife. I just like to open a book. I still like to go into bookshops... although sadly many are closing down as they cannot compete with the likes of Amazon.

“I’m not complaining, it’s just a fact,” he said, adding that although technology was bound to develop, books will not die.