Some time ago, I had reviewed the first volume of this two-volume dictionary of Maltese biographies.

Having now finished the second volume, I can now update my reactions and my analyses.

In my previous review I kept a list of people who I felt had unfortunately been left out of the first volume. This time, I did not keep such a list, though I remember, for instance, that there is Winston Zahra Sr but not Jr.

This time, I want to be more positive.

This is an incredible treasure house of achievements by Maltese persons over the centuries.

There is a compendium, for instance, of works of art by artists, music compositions by composers, books written (sometimes even if left as manuscripts) by authors.

Sincerely, I would not know how the authors found all these details and maybe it is time, for some enterprising person to try and see how some books, for instance, can be republished, in an age when there are many people who relish reading novels in Maltese.

Again, the absence of a museum of modern art, let alone one of contemporary art, hinders our appreciation of so many works of art that are kept hidden away in the Museum of Fine Arts’ warehouses and storerooms.

Some categories of persons are perhaps more represented than others, such as priests from religious orders and also, incongruously, footballers.

Some are dry and aseptic accounts, some (probably by the person him/herself, florid and self-congratulatory, denoting the absence of a critical editing.

Some include family details, while others do not and you are left to speculate if so and so is the son, or brother, or father of the next person on the list.

However, what time and again nonplussed me regarded both religious priests and married women: we are rarely given the original surname or name when these have been changed and this, again, cuts down on our understanding of that person’s context.