Malta By Sacheverell Sitwell And Tony Armstrong Jones

Exerpt from the preface: The inception of this book is due in the first instance to Mr. Mintoff, the Prime Minister of Malta, at whose invitation I was enabled to spend four weeks seeing the island during August and September of 1957. I have to thank him for his encouragement and for it making it possible for me to write it. Sir Robert Laycock, the Governor of the Island, I have to thank for many kindnesses and for helping me to the same end in every way he could. Mr. Trafford Smith, the Lieutenant-Governor, was also most helpful, sending me a long letter of detailed information about things I would otherwise have missed seeing, and taking me among other places to Verdala Castle and to the beautiful little summer villa of the Inquisitor, near by.
It was due to Sir Charles Madden, Flag Officer Malta, that my wife and I were entertained at Villa Portelli with its lovely garden and view over the Grand Harbour; and Captain Lord Roden, commanding Fort St. Angelo, let us see that wonderful old fortress in perhaps the finest position of the whole of the Grand Harbour.
I owe a particular debt of gratitude to Mr. Edward Ellul, the Commissioner-General of Malta in London, to whom this book is dedicated. Over many months he has given me every form of help and assistance, supplying information and acting indeed as the friend unknown to me that I now realize he has been since I began writing at the end of the First World War. When my wife and I returned from Malta he was waiting to meet us at London Airport at five o’clock in the morning. He has read the proofs of this book and put himself to infinite trouble in order to help me. In the matter of proof reading I would also thank Mr. Felic Mercieca whose name appears at the beginning of the chapter on Gozo