I struggled through this with gritted teeth. Based on the rear cover Dr Cassar has a Cambridge PhD in Cultural History; one can only wonder who wrote his essays and thesis. This is the worst example of published English I've come across and I rather surprised myself by finishing it prior to a visit to Malta. Either Mireva Publications (Malta) is sorely in need of a good editor or Dr Cassar declined offers of editing.
One could equally challenge his structural approach. Each chapter rambles round the same topic from different directions, which might have been a valid approach were it not for the continual re-iteration of the same information, dates etc. Confusing rather than informative and difficult to follow. Did Christopher Duggan of Reading Uni actually read the book before describing it as 'enjoyable'? Was he praising with faint damns with "Cassar's technique of interspersing detailed narrative with sweeping brush-strokes, provides for variety of pace and tone"? Is the misplaced comma in that sentence a sneaky tribute to Cassar's several hundred (perhaps thousand, I didn't count) misplaced commas? ( )