Mintoff: The man and history - the new 608 page publication on Mintoff’s personal and political life, was launched in Gozo at It-Tokk, Gozo’s main square where on 21 May 1961 the bells of St. James Church tried to silence Mr. Mintoff while addressing a public meeting.  Mintoff had met immense hostility in this square from hundreds of Gozitans who were urged to exhibit their disapproval of Mintoff’s presence in Gozo during the height of the political-religious dispute between the Labour Party and the local church.

Yana Bland Mintoff, Mintoff’s eldest daugher and one of 29 contributors in this new volume attended this launch. Ms. Bland Mintoff, who was nine years old then, recounted her father’s preoccupations on  these unfortunate events when he returned home late at night from Gozo. Ms. Bland Mintoff said that on that day her mother, her sister and herself were worried about the fate of her father and the hundreds of Labour supporters who had crossed over to Gozo.  I remember the following morning, my father was pensive, then telling us ‘They don’t know what they’re doing!’ when he described the resistance he and  hundreds of Maltese had faced when they arrived in Gozo.

Edited by Mario Cutajar, the book is essentially a collection of 29 contributions by different authors from a sociological, anthropological, historical, economical and political point of view. The book is a publication by SKS, the editorial house of the Labour Party with the intention to initiate a discussion on who Mintoff was, on how he may be understood from the perspective of different academic and intellectual disciplines, and on what relevance he might have for current and future generations of Maltese.

The book  is  on sale at the price of €30 from leading booksellers in Malta and Gozo and from the SKS Stand at the Malta National Bookfair to be held this week between 6-11 November at the Mediterranean Conference Centre..

PHOTO CAPTION -  Mintoff’s eldest daughter Yana  signing copies of MINTOFF – The man and History in Gozo.