Mikela Fenech Pace is one of the many grandchildren of former President Censu Tabone who is much loved to this day. She worked closely at OPM when Dr Gonzi was Prime Minister and was very active during the Libyan crisis. Mikaela  is the mother of five. I have known her since her early teens for her twin Francesca Rizzo, Mikaela and my eldest were in the same class and good friends. She is 'open' and warm, friendly with a heart of gold and a hard worker to boot. How do you write a book with five small children,  a large home, and a job too? How did she juggle it all? I will let her tell us how it came to pass: "The idea for the book was really and truly accidental. Those who know me well know that I often use humour to be able to cope with a stressful situation. We were in the first two weeks of the Libya crisis and I was working 24/7 as a member of the Government Contingency Centre. During those first few weeks we evacuated over 21,000 people from Libya from all over the world. All the coordination was being done by OPM and MFA and I was in the lead at OPM. On a personal level, my niece had just been operated on after six months battling cancer, my other two nieces were living with me during this period and we were building a second bedroom for the children.  The weekend the Libya crisis began, my house and life were chaotic at best. Their was the added emotional trauma of watching my 5-year-old niece battling cancer and my twin sister coping with that and her eldest also facing a major heart operation. With seven children in my bedroom and the drama that goes with it, I received that fateful call to set up the contingency centre whilst battling a high fever.

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 Jacky's email was one of the hundreds of emails I received from desperate family members during that time. He children were my children's age when their father took them and kept them in Libya so I knew I had to help. In the run up to their evacuation I spent many nights at Jacky's pouring over the details and seeking the best solution. If there was ever a good time to bring her two youngest children out of Libya it was during this time - we only had a few days and we had to think fast. We cried together and laughed yet it was incredibly tense and overwhelming. My children and husband hadn't seen me for weeks, my sister and her children needed support and I was torn between doing my job and being a good mother, wife and sister. At one stage I turned to Jacky and in quasi disbelief at her story told her she should consider writing a book. She immediately asked me to promise to write it and I accepted not really believing I would ever do it - but a promise is a promise and here it is - three years later.

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How did we do it? We started meeting at Jacky's house twice or three times a week after the children went to sleep. I had only ever written speeches and reports until this time. I decided early on that I would write the book as I like to read books. Hence, the chapter titles, short sentences and lots of emotions. I also realised that it had to be written in the first person seeing that the emotions were so raw and needed to be transmitted faithfully.  Jacky would answer my questions and leave the room for a cigarette, then come back and check up on what I had written.  It was painfully slow and exhausting at times yet we ploughed through. Each time we met we wrote one or two chapters which I would then work on. I would often subject my husband, best friend Mirela and Nanny Dina to countless hours of listening to my chapters so as to get a better understanding of how the book was developing. Luckily their enthusiasm never waned.

We often didn't meet up, life was incredibly hectic for me and I often had to force myself to leave the house after a day of work and home. My husband was and is my biggest fan which means he always encouraged me and pushed me to go and get it over with.

I always believed Jacky's story had to be told. It intrigued me and troubled me at the same time. I often asked her why she took certain decisions and questioned her reasoning. It is truly amazing how volatile the human spirit can be yet also how resilient.

I knew the book had to be written yet never really planned the next stages. We knew we wanted to publish it yet didn't know where to start from. I contacted the KITE GROUP who read the first few chapters.  I thought of the manuscript as my child and treated it as such. My husband always made sure I sent him every chapter as he feared I would lose the manuscript. KITE loved the first few chapters and agreed to publish. We had one month to finish the manuscript which meant we had to sprint to the finishing line. During this time my father was nearing the end of his battle with cancer. Once again my life was in total turmoil. I knew I had to finish it before he passed away as I desperately wanted him to read it. He was never an avid reader but wanted to read my book so this spurred me on. During this time Jacky would come to my house and I would sit at my kitchen table, surrounded by children and work on the last few chapters with the input of the children. Luckily the last few chapters I was all too familiar with as I lived through them which made the process easier.

It was at this time that I asked my uncle Hu Taylor East to edit the text. He spent every evening with my father at home  so it was useful to be around my father and work on the book at the same time. It was also a difficult time in terms of work. I was changing jobs and working on the book at the same time. Luckily, my father did manage to read one of the first drafts of the book and loved it. He, too, was one of my biggest fans.

How did I cope?  I simply take each day as it comes and hope I get it right. In a few years I trust my children will look back and draw some inspiration out of my work yet no doubt just like I did they will probably look back and also find I made a few mistakes along the way. I have always contended that there are many guides to many different careers yet the hardest which is that of a mum doesn't come with a guide book. I have always tried to instill a love of reading and writing in my children and so far I seem to have succeeded. The aftermath of the book is that each and every one of them are writing their own book - they are indeed very amusing." 

Well, Mikaela, you have another book to write. About the Libyan crisis.... Start after Christmas!  I know you will do it.