Malta

When established author Mark Harland decided to turn away from novels for his next work, he chose to write his memories of living as a young boy in Malta. Born at the David Bruce Naval Hospital in M’tarfa, he went to England with his parents when he was two years old. When the Admiralty transferred his father, Victor, back to Malta in 1960, the author attended St. Andrews Army School for the next three years.
This book traces his life over those years, from living an idyllic life by the sea at St. Paul’s Bay to moving to Sliema, where life brought different but still memory-enriching experiences.
From the people he went to school with to the shopkeepers, hoteliers and farmers he befriended the author recounts tales as if they happened yesterday.
When he left ‘his island’ in 1963, he could not possibly have foreseen that over four decades would pass before he returned. The last chapter deals solely with the numerous visits he has made in recent years and he describes how the island today compares with the island he grew up in as a boy.