FORTRESS ISLANDS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 536, 30 September 1949, Page 17

FORTRESS ISLANDS

MALTA; by Sir Harry Luke; Harrap and Co. Ltd. English price, 15/-. : VEN St. Paul," say the Maltese of their most venerated saint, "even St. Paul suffered shipwreck in Malta." This tiny archipelago has been washed with the waves of every European civilisation. In prehistoric ages great creatures lumbered across it while it was still an arch of a landbridge from | Europe to Africa, many of them escaping the descent of the ice age only to perish in the caves of the islands. Sir Harry Luke, in what is undoubtedly the most enduring of his many books, has reconstructed the impact of successive civilisations from primeval times upon these tiny but momentous islands. Yet this is far more than a history. It reveals e¥ery part of Maltese life past and present, its politics, religion, art and wars, from the extraordinary story of the Knights of St. John to the horror of the slave galleys. A thousand years of fortress existence has left its mark upon the archipelago. Its people and buiddings. persist, stubbornly, in an archaic mode of life which is, however, not without its charm. Sixty-eight plates, maps and drawings are of great assistance in understanding the author’s notes upon Maltese art and architecture, while a series of noble portraits give meaning to the author’s analysis of the decline of the famous order of St. John. The manner in which wealth and pride slowly but surely replaced the simple integrity of the founders is convincing proof that the greatest peril for an idealistic institution is the subtle menace of material success. All Europe seems to have had a hand in Maltese affairs and many witty and shrewd, quotations from famous visitors who have, relaxed in its sunshine add sparkle to a book which is a scholarly survey of an island steeped in the forgotten movements of past ages.

F. R.

Belmer