I have just finished reading Joseph Vella Bondin’s recently published book Għasir il-Bniedem (a Bronk Publication, 2011), a collection of two plays and a radio feature.

I have to admit that Il-George Cross nostalgically reminded me of my long career in the production and presentation of the many diverse radio features I was responsible for during the many years I was an employee of Xandir Malta and PBS.

Although I was not involved in Il-George Cross, I can state that it is an excellent feature and provides a model to writers in this field. A multi-faceted work, it focuses on Malta’s experiences in the Second World War through a narrator who weaves the story and the theme in a manner that makes the reader feel he is living this painful and heroic episode in our nation’s history. Vella Bondin’s attention to details – including life in the damp, dug-out rock shelters and the paralysing explosions and frightening clamours of the war – is admirable.

In his valuable introduction, Prof. Charles Briffa writes: “The structure of this dramatic documentary evolves from a beginning which entices the reader/listener’s attention to generate the tension of a tragedy associated with honour – a juxtaposition that glitters with irony.” The felicity and maturity of the writing becomes even more impressive when one remembers that it was the first dramatic work written by the author and when still in his very early 20s. Without doubt, it deserved the first prize it won in the 1957 Rediffusion Radio Features Competition.

From that felicitous beginning, Vella Bondin’s superior writing talent went on to give us other great works, including plays which won diverse leading literary competitions.

I have seen most of his staged works and always found them important achievements, enriching our nation’s literary endowment. Before knowing him as a writer, I knew him as a singer, one of our country’s best operatic basses.

Għasir il-Bniedem also features two other absorbing dramas: The stage play Is-Sur Mastru, Bella, il-Professur u Proġetti Oħra of which there were two outstanding productions, one in the St James’ Cavalier Creativity Centre and the other in the Catholic Institute auditorium, both of which I attended, and the radioplay Tindaħalx, Din Hi Ħajti which deservedly won another Rediffusion Radioplay Competition prize.

As one reads these plays, one becomes aware of the mastery the author has in the use of our native tongue. Each word seems to be appositely chosen and befitting the character of the person who speaks the sentences and expressions. Indeed, Vella Bondin’s excellent use of Maltese increases the pleasure of reading these plays, which also exhibit the meticulous research he must have made of the period in which his plots unfold and their background.

In my opinion Għasir il-Bniedem deserves a place in our libraries. It offers excellent reading through stories of absorbing interest.

Peter Paul Ciantar

Rabat