Tucked in a tiny room in a small house in Birzebbuga, 78-year-old Joe Galea has his lifetime collection of written works, most of which have not been published.

The works are piled neatly on top of each other, all clearly labelled and marked.

Most of the works are typewritten on A4 paper but a few have not even been typed and most probably will never be as Mr Galea stopped writing some six years ago due to a problem with his eyesight.

His wish is to see as much of his work as possible published before he dies.

He started writing at the beginning of World War II, back in 1940. He then lived in Senglea and was a member of the drama company La Sengle, formed by a group of teenage friends from this home town.

The group used to get together to perform plays in a big room in one of their homes, which they had made up complete with a stage for the purpose.

A soldier friend of his, Mr Galea recalled, had encouraged him to be prompter for the plays. Later he encouraged him to start writing them.

Mr Galea said he wrote four stage plays - Hitler u Berlin (Hitler and Berlin), Dandu ir-Rekluta (Dandu the recruit), Is-Sinjal tas-Salib (The sign of the cross) and L-Ahwa Korsikani (The Corsican siblings). That was his first experience in writing.

Soon after the war broke out he started keeping a day-by-day war diary. He used to include his own experiences and an overview of what would have happened according to newspaper reports. He kept the diary until the very end of the war.

Having lived through the war, Mr Galea said that some 30 years ago he got the urge to write Malta's experience during the war. He carried out extensive research in Malta, Italy, the UK, Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands and collected eyewitness accounts from several Maltese and foreigners.

He completed the history - 1,600 of typed A4 pages - in about 25 years and the first part of this, an 80-page book, including photographs from the Imperial War Museum, was published this year.

The book deals with what had taken place before the war and what had caused it. It discusses Adolf Hitler's plans to attack Poland and other European countries.

The second book will now deal with how World War II had originated and Malta's involvement in the war. Mr Galea calculates that about 10 or so books would be required for the whole history to be published.

He has another two major works, both unpublished, one of which is about Senglea during the war. This book also contains many eyewitness accounts including his own. Indeed, he recounts the day when he had found his grandfather dead after he was hit by a slab from a demolished building on his way to the Victory Kitchen. This book is 500-typed A4 pages long.

The other major work is the History Of The Admiralty Constabulary (Malta).

Mr Galea joined the admiralty, then known as the Dockyard Police, in 1946. He spent 32 years of his life working in the admiralty. In the last seven years he was stationed at the headquarters, where he had been chosen to work after replying to an internal call.

The chief officer had learned that Mr Galea was fond of writing and that he was regularly contributing articles to the Luqa News (the air force journal) and The Dolphin and Eagle (the navy journal). He invited Mr Galea to write the history of the admiralty. Mr Galea had responded that this was a difficult task but he would try. He asked for and was given access to documents to carry out this task. He finished his work (700-typed A4 pages) in four years.

Mr Galea worked at the admiralty until the very end. He had been tasked with writing everyone's discharge notice, including his own.

On leaving the admiralty, he applied to join Dirghajn il-Maltin but he left soon after to be secretary to an army warrant officer. After three months in this job, he joined Telemalta, where he remained until his retirement.

Mr Galea remained a regular writer of novels, features, short stories and radio plays. He has written about 70 pieces, 15 of which have been published. Some of them are related to the war, some to love and to the family. Some, but not all, reflect his experiences.

His last works were for a monthly newsletter he used to publish as the Malta promoter of the visions of Our Lady in Garabandal in Spain. Although these visions have not been approved by Church, they have not been condemned either. He translated five leaflets published by the Garabandal Centre in New York.

Mr Galea was married in 1950 and is now a father of seven, a grandfather of 13 and a great-grandfather of seven.