Maltese author James Vella-Bardon, popular for The Sassana Stone Pentalogy is all set to feature at the Manly Writers Festival this weekend in Australia. He will launch the fifth and final book of the series at the festival.Vella-Bardon will attend the festival as a guest along with Australian novelist Emily Maguire.
The two writers will join the festival during “Historical Fiction Beyond the Border”, a talk hosted by Professor Victoria Haskins of the University of Newcastle, New South Wales.
Vella-Bardon started out as a lawyer, first in Malta, then in Sydney, but his real passion was always writing. Eventually, he left law behind to pursue it fully. His first novel, The Sheriff’s Catch, was published in the UK by Unbound in 2018. It quickly gained recognition, earning ‘Book of the Month’ at the University of Malta and winning multiple literary awards in the U.S., including ‘Best Novel’ and ‘Best Historical Fiction’ at the Royal Dragonfly Awards.
Since then, he’s expanded the Sassana Stone series, adding four more books, a novella, and even a short story about Robert the Bruce. Critics, including The London Economic, have praised his work for its depth, emotional impact, and authenticity.
The Sassana Stone series follows Abel de Santiago, a Maltese marksman in the Spanish Army of Flanders. After a horrific betrayal by his own comrades, he seeks revenge in Seville—only to be forced into servitude as a galley rower for the Spanish Armada. When the fleet meets its disastrous fate against the English, Santiago is shipwrecked in western Ireland, a land under brutal English rule. Captured and sentenced to execution, he escapes with the help of fate and a mysterious trinket—one of immense value, though neither he nor his Irish allies realize just how much the English will sacrifice to reclaim it.
