Reviewed by Noel Grima



Qrendi, Essays on the History of a Maltese Village, AN Welsh

Din l-Art Helwa, 114pp, 2009



Originally intended for the bicentenary of the Qrendi parish, in 2007, this slim but interesting book covers aspects of the life and history of Qrendi as seen by a foreigner who, however, has been living in the village for 20 years.

Curiously, the book is in English, with a Maltese translation at the side. And even more curiously, four chapters after The Last Chapter comes a chapter completely in English with no Maltese translation.

The book tells us nothing about the author, although a photo on page 88 shows Mr Welsh together with his wife. Right from the beginning, the book tells us it has no pretension at being the complete history of the village.

Some time ago, when living in Mgarr, I read the history of that village, written by a local priest (Mgr A. Deguara) and somewhere I have a history of Mellieha still awaiting its turn. But even such histories written by people from the village, can also become partial and tendentious even with the best of intentions. Mr Welsh’s book has no such pretensions: it is just a series of articles he published here and there, with no claim at being the whole history of the village.

It is perhaps for this reason that while including a quite interesting chapter on the Temple Age, the author does not give us a closer analysis of the Hagar Qim and Mnajdra temples, so near to Qrendi as to form part of it. He gives us the obligatory detour to discuss Malta as a possible Atlantis (though the Paolo Diacono he mentions on page 2 is more often known as Paul the Deacon, not a member of the Diacono family).

His next chapters discuss more Malta’s later history than that of Qrendi, although when he mentions Punic tombs and other remains found in Qrendi he could, and should, have provided us with more information. One Moorish feature he neglects to mention surely must be the Muxrabija in the Octagonal Tower (and also I believe in the Palazzo Guarena) the earliest and original creations of what today are our balconies – purely a defensive structure to enable the inhabitants pour hot oil over whoever was attacking it. Also, there is no description of the Guarena palace.

Fittingly for a book that was originally meant to celebrate the parish’s centenary, the chapter on the parish is full of details. But equally (though I do not fault the author for this, for he has to live among the people) there is nothing in the book about the inordinate rivalry between the two band clubs in the parish, the two feasts, etc.

One chapter is by Dr Alexander Cachia Zammit, possibly the only surviving minister in the Borg Olivier administration which gave Malta its independence, about his ties with the village.