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What they said about Giovanni Bonello’s Histoires Of Malta:
We are again given cause to rejoice at the wealth of historiacal material published and craftily written by Vanni’s unequalled pen… What really makes this book stand apart is the fascinating variety of topics and personalities that come to life in a way thata occasionally tends to chill one to the bone… another collection of mouth-watering and lurides tales… this magnificient volume… yet another essential publication from the pen of this nonchalent and extremly humble man of letters. Keep them coming, Vanni! Gerald Fenech in the Malta Independant.
What Giovanni Benello has done through his extensive research is to bring these otherwise expressionless faces to life in way that does not fail to astound… Many of the stories in Volume 6 coukd be out of a contempory News of the World… researches like Vanni Benello’s serve to breathe life and provide flesh, blood and guts to an otherwise desiccated skeleton… a painstaking and dedicated researcher who has done do much in making our history more alive, more human and infinitely entertaining. Kenneth Zammit Tabona in Weekender.
… the vast amount of researchGiovanni Benello has carried out-and still carrying out. In this country he is a phenomenon: a serious and indeed meticulous author who has appealed again to a wide readership, and is in the field of historical readership a best-seller in Malta… in his mischievious, sometimes deliberatly flippant, style… Wha many readers look for are tales of violence, teachery and the wider shores of sexual misbehaviour … More fascinated by the splendid article article about the Sapnish knight Alonso de Contreras… his story of inns and taverns in Malta during the past five hundred years will certainly become a atrating point for future historians… Paul Xuerb presenting the book.
Here’s my annual exhoratation to you trot out, if you haven’t already, to get hold of Judge Bonello’s sixth volume of bits of our history… As always, the erudition of the research is sneakly undermind by the throwaway lines that skulk, like the Artful Dodger, in the text, making you read back with a grin slowly dawning over you face. The nuggets of irreverence that lie just below the surface make for compelling reading, even though this history… may I humbly submit for this honour’s consideration, as I have before, tha it is about time that he dedicates himself to writing about his own history? I.M Beck in the Times
This is sixth anthology of works be Benello takes off whre the others left. The author, well known for his mastery of Maltese history, especially that of the last five hundred yaers, includes a series of 14 original essays and two book reviews… All the chapters witness the extent of the research carried out by authors in the different archives scattered all over Malta… in this way his narrative acquires more life and relevance… The juiciness of the subject treated, the richness of the illustrations and the mine hidden in the various reference notes that follow every chapter, will ensure for this publication another success in this series. Stefan Cachia In Il-Gens.
… assorted types the author finds such pleasure in prising from the pages of dusty and haf-forgotten manuscripts and bringing them to life with his elegant writing style and his pleasant sense for humour… hardly need reminding of Bonello’s abilities. he is the dauntless researcher, flitting from flower to flower without any preconceived pattern and making fine honey in the process. Blessed with a prodigious memeory, he can remember small details we tend to forget and see links and connections between them… Art, possibility even more than the law that is his profession, is one of Bonello’s greatest amours. Louis J.Scerri in The Sunday Times.
A portfolio of distinctive and diverse subjects presented in Bonello’s well-definied style… the breeze from the past wafts over the reader, at times gentle and refreshing, at times virulent and upsetting. It invades all the senses, and, like a good wine, leaves one dazzled yet craving for more. The potency and innovation of Bonello’s work comes from the fact he treats the protagonist of the past not as if he is merely a spectator trying to understand their deeds, as they have been handed down through the ages… He does not so much bring the past to the present as take himself to the past he wishes to explore… his writing so refreshingly informative… Beyond the historical accuracy, ensured Bonello’s meticulous research, the reader is able to participate in the personification game. Joe Azzopardi in Vigilo.
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