The old year approached its end well for me, among other things with the arrival of various interesting additions to my book trove. Among them were four narratives in some way or another related to the 60s.
They bear ‘tasting’ here, decades on from that significant period in our recent history. Such significance had various facets. The ugliest was that of Malta’s second terrible politico-religious dispute, which is touched upon among the four publications, but does not form their core.
Another ugly facet was the start of an unbridled property boom, which was to have harsh effects within the banking sector, among other places.
Two other facets were in worlds which could not be more distanced from each other. One was that of business. The other was the arts, particularly with a veritable revolution in the literary fields which drew upon what was taking place elsewhere in Europe, but was mostly home-grown.
A couple of the books I am referring to were published by a young publishing house, Horizons Publications. They flowed out of thepens of two main stalwarts of theMoviment Qawmien Letterarju, the rebirth of Maltese literature in the 60s, Victor Fenech and CharlesFlores, both poets in essence but who spread their literary wings beyond poetry.
Actually, Fenech experimented with short stories early in life. I was inspired in that direction by his Grand Corrida, which he let me view at Qormi Boys Primary School where we worked together in the late 1950s, he a trained teacher at the grand old age of 21, I an untrained one at 17. From his example I also tip-toed into journalism, a responsibility which must weigh heavilyon him as we share friendship tothis day.
Fenech went on to become one of Malta’s leading modern poets, a paradox, since few are as romantic as he. A few years ago he said goodbye to all that, but did not give up writing, concentrating on prose instead of poetry. Ix-Xitwa ta’ Wara s-Sjuf is the latest published fruit of that concentration.
With him partially hidden as the observer and narrator, it follows the loss of innocence of four teenagers, lacing their escapades with references to what was taking place in the 60s, in politics, economics and literature. The youths’ early summers are paralleled with their development into mature and then, in our time, old men in decline, at death’s doorstep.
Fenech has written an apparently simple social narrative, but it is far deeper than that. Its final part, moreover, is pure introspection in a splendid example of lyrical writing, a poem-in-prose (in which he specialised) of the highest quality.
Flores, also a leading poet and active in the Moviment Qawmien Letterarju, worked extensively as a journalist, in both the published and the transmitted media.
I met him in the late 1960s when at Union Press we were trying to mount a challenge to the Progress Press newspapers. He was serious and dedicated to his life of journalism and poetry from those early days when we were young (he younger) and no dream seemed impossible.
Flores has written a semi-biographical novel, or rather a collection of linked stories, which traces the footsteps of a journalist and lover of literature from early youth to maturity. It is a narrative about human nature and interpersonal relationships, sometimes of a very personal kind. He titles his collection Arloġġ ta’ Darba, for as the minutes of the clock travel but once over the same time, so do we all through life.
Like Fenech, Flores is proficient, and has published, in both English and Maltese. Like Fenech’s too, this publication is in Maltese.
George Cini is a fellow journalist, who works for The Times. In 2004 the editor of The Times suggested he write a feature about Strada Stretta. Cini started researching and found out the obvious. That famous, some say infamous narrow street inValletta required far more than one feature.
It is said to have begun to earn notoriety in the times of the Knights of St John, reputed to have fought illegal duels there. With the arrival of the British Navy it developed into Malta’s equivalent of a pink district. To call it red would be too harsh. It was packed with restaurants, bars and even a number of music halls.
Most British serviceman who passed through or spent time in Malta savoured the quarter-kilometre strait stretch. I first visited the UK as a young parliamentarian and journalist in 1963, courtesy of the Foreign and Colonial Office. One of my meetings was with the board of directors of a leading company. To my astonishment the first thing one of the directors asked me was, “How is the Gut?” That was what the UK servicemen, in time Americans too, called Strada Stretta.
In his wonderful book by that name, published by Allied Publications, Cini has captured the spirit of the place, still very much alive in the 60s, through a series of striking interviews with some of the leading characters who peopled the Gut.
The fourth book is written in English. Malcolm Naudi, another journalist, knew Anthony (‘Nini’) Miceli-Farrugia well, having worked close to him at Farsons for several years in the 1970s.
He recorded material for his Random Recollections and Memories from him in his old age, at times with the help of Nini’s gracious wife,Liliana. Naudi captured the man I and so many others knew. I met Miceli-Farrugua when I joined the Chamber of Commerce in 1968. Heading Simonds-Farsons-Cisk, he was already one of Malta’s leading businessmen.
Quick of wit and sharp of tongue, he steered the company well and with purpose. Louis Farrugia, who took over from him, has grown the enterprise, on the strong basis he had to work from.
Miceli-Farrugia is credited with having created the Kinnie beverage in the 1950s. It is still goingstrong, not least in its diet form. So is Farsons, a monument tothose who structured the Simonds-Farsons-Cisk group, includingMiceli-Farrugia.
Liliana, a dear friend, sent me a signed copy of the book. It will be among my special treasures.