The English edition of the best seller ‘StradaStretta It-Triq li darba Xeghlet il-Belt’ has just been published.  This translation by George Cini, who also wrote the original Maltese edition, is titled ‘Strada Street ‘The Gut’ which once lit up Valletta’.

The book has an identical cover as the original but is slightly smaller to make it handier.

The book by Allied Publications is on sale at bookstores and stationers and from www.bdlbooks.com.Apart from a collection of nostalgic photos, the books features a set of vibrant watercolours by Paul Caruana.

In a foreword to the book, Prof. Carmel Cassar – from the Institute of Tourism, Travel and Culture at the University of Malta – notes that a few years back – while having lunch at one of the older Cambridge colleges in England – he was introduced to an elderly gentleman.

“He asked where I came from and without any hesitation, I answered that I grew up in Valletta. He added that despite the many visits to the island, he will never forget his first night on the island. It goes way back to the late 1950s, when, in the company of an older friend who was somehow addicted to ‘The Gut’, he thoroughly enjoyed his first night in Malta down Strait Street! My new friend admitted that this first night was a shock.

“It was a night spent singing, drinking, and eating, in the company of genuine music and dance lovers, amongst men and women of dubious repute, and a multitude of soldiers and sailors of several nationalities…It never occurred to me that, during lunch at one of the oldest colleges of a university of great repute, I would ever be discussing ‘The Gut,’” Prof. Cassar recalls.

When contacted, Mr Cini explained how, “‘The Gut’ still evokes a sea of memories to droves of servicemen from most armed forces around the world but particularly British and American who remember the alley in Valletta as a place where they spent nights listening to live music and enjoying themselves.

“The memories ‘The Gut’ still stir in servicemen who served here are reinforced by the tales and reminiscences in the book recounted by the very protagonists who spent their life earning a living along that electrifying street.”