Horizons has published Anton Grasso’s latest release - Genn fl-Aqwa Tieghu (Total Madness), a collection of 28 new stories from this prolific author. It is the 27th volume of stories and his 52nd book in a carrier spanning over 40 years.

Mr Grasso was born in Paola in 1952. After attending the Government Primary School, he continued his studies at the Seminary. For more than six years he taught Religious Knowledge, Maltese and English in Senglea’s and Bighi’s Trade schools.

He started writing at an early age and published his first book Iljieli bla Qamar (Moonless Nights) at the age of 22 in 1974 and again in 1997. It is considered as the first modern collection of horror stories in Maltese. Most of his books have been sold out, many of them reprinted and still a large number of his books are out of print.

Mr Grasso’s books include novels, translations of novels and short stories, essays, poetry, studies about the supernatural, including Enigma, a very successful television production based on his book, an autobiography, besides numerous volumes of stories, mainly horror fiction, making him Malta’s foremost horror writer.

In 1978 Mr Grasso started reading his stories on Radio Malta in a programme simply named Horror Stories, which remained popular for over two decades. In 1987 he read his stories for a schedule of three months on television, the only Maltese author who had such a programme. In 1981 he joined the national television station as a programme director, a career that lasted till 2004.

Readers well known to his style will find the old Grasso, perhaps with some new ingredients.