The Man Making Merlin’s Magic.

Chris Gruppetta has his moment on stage with Ms. Turner.

There are two very important things in Chris Gruppetta’s life – apart from his wife, and his son of course. Books, and Tina Turner. In fact, the first time we met was over lunch in London, when he was on his way to watch her perform live, and was so excited, he could hardly sit and eat. Much as I’d like to discuss his obsession with Ms. Turner, it’s his other favourite subject we’re here to talk about. Chris is the brain behind Merlin library, Malta’s leading publishing house, which publishes leading Maltese authors like Guze Stagno and Pierre Mejlak, as well as the phenomenally successful Fiddien trilogy. Straight out of the Malta Book Fair, I caught up with him to discuss Tsek-Tsik – his latest venture in promoting books and reading, censorship, and male genitalia in Maltese literature.

JF: Now that it's all over, how did it go at the Book Fair?

 CG:  Insofar as attendance and sales are concerned, it must have been one of the best years. Do keep in mind, however - that the Malta Book Fair is not a book fair as, for example, the London or Frankfurt ones are.

 JF:  In what way?

 CG:  The focus here is on sales: it's a family outing, and publishers and bookshops set up stalls to sell books. Which is fine, of course, but somewhat limiting. What interests me most - as a publisher - is having a showcase of my most interesting work.

 JF:  And you always have interesting work ... and interesting ways to promote it. This year you had Tsek-tsik, (note: a play on the Maltese word for “gossip”) which from what I hear was the highlight of the fair. Tell me about it.

 CG:  Actually it originated from the "bookstall" limitations. I wanted something that would allow me to showcase creativity in a fun way, without the constraints of a 3m x 21m stand with shelves and cash points etc. It's probably the first time that a book event was not linked to any particular book - ie. There was no direct commercial 'purpose' to it; we were in no way launching a book or promoting a particular title.Speakers were given total freedom, in fact they could - and some did - mention books by other publishers, and authors not published by us.

 JF:  So it's more about promoting literature, books and the creative process than a particular book...

CG:  Exactly. I adapted the format - with permission, of course - from the UK Society of Young Publishers Canon Tales, which I'd seen live last April at the London Book Fair. The concept of Tsek-tsik is: 10 speakers, each chose 15 images and spoke about each image for exactly 20 seconds. The slides were pre-programmed to turn over after 20 seconds, so there's no leeway - the idea being that no speaker would go on and on about one point, but move on, keeping it fast and varying.

 JF:  I take it that with that time span, no politicians were involved ;O)

 CG: LOL. No, they weren't! It was actually very challenging but instructive, even as a speaker (I was one of the 10 1/2 speakers). I realized when preparing my tsek-tsika, just how short 20 seconds are. I ended up editing and throwing out lots of superfluous bla bla

 JF:  Which is never a bad thing. My impression of Merlin is that of it being publishers of Maltese schoolbooks, but you seem to have changed all of that and brought it up to the 21st century, publishing established authors like Trevor Zahra and Mario Azzopardi as well as more groundbreaking authors, like Guze Stagno and Pierre Mejlak. How did that come about?

CG:  Traditionally, yes, we've been publishers since 1972 and focused on schoolbooks, but I've always thought it useless to complain that people don't read in Maltese, if we don't give them cutting-edge fiction with cutting-edge presentation and packaging on a par with foreign books. Authors like Pierre Mejlak and Clare Azzopardi began publishing with us when they were still very young and their careers were still on the launching pad, so to speak. If anything, I hope I've given them the creative freedom to experiment and find their own voice. The standing joke here at the office is that when faced with a choice between a 'good' project and a 'way out' one, we generally choose the 'way out' one

 JF:  A bold step, given the current publishing situation in Malta. I am referring of course to the Ir-Realta/Alex Vella Gera palaver.

 CG:  Don't even get me started on that. Thing is, things changed very late, very fast, in Malta. Stagno's Inbid ta' Kuljum, which was the first Maltese book to feature an abundance of explicit language and situations, wasn't published until 2001. I don't need to tell you how late that is, by European (and worldwide) standards. But since then, in only 8 years, we've moved forward at a very fast pace, so much so that I now refuse some manuscripts that are just about being explicit for the "shock effect" because frankly I find them boring and passé and gia visto (already seen). Obviously, some people in authority are not comfortable with this fast pace of change (not only in publishing of course, but more generally in the creative industries) and idiotic gestures such as the banning of Ir- Realta are the result. I'm upset not so much as by the Rector banning it on campus (stupid, of course, but ultimately I guess that's his jurisdiction), but by the fact that the police deemed fit to intervene and actually threaten the author and editor with criminal (!) proceedings for obscene libel. Incidentally, during Tsek-tsik, 3 speakers actually changed one of their slides at the last moment to screen a part of the text of AVG's story. That for me was cool as it made it a live, up-to-date event

 JF:  At least there was a lot of support about that. As a publisher do you find the current climate frustrating, or does it make you want to push the envelope even further?

 CG:  Definitely frustrating. Most of my friends and people in my age group have moved or are moving abroad, and I can't say I blame them. The worrying thing about the police involvement is that technically (as in, legally) of course they're right - the obscenity law is still on the statute books, as is the law making it a criminal offence to insult the RC religion. So where does that leave me as a publisher? There are no benchmarks. I mean, how many zbub (cocks) in a page does it take to make the 'grade' from simply 'vulgar' to 'obscene'? It's ridiculous, of course, but I'm not about to go back to publishing nice cozy stories about children frolicking in the countryside and having high tea with mum, while dad is off working.

JF:  God that would be terrible ... I'd like to see as many zbub and ghoxux (cunts) as possible.

 CG:  LOL

 JF:  That’s why I loved Stagno's Ramon u iz-Zerbinotti! I hadn't read a Maltese book in years and here suddenly was this book in which the characters spoke exactly as people in Malta speak

 CG:  Exactly. Ramon and his friends speak just like we used to speak at school, and do and think and watch the things boys all over the world do at that age.

 JF:  It was very refreshing to read …

 CG:  Even the AVG story merely portrays the language and mentality of many guys - I've heard those exact same descriptions from people I know, many times - as I'm sure everyone else has.

 JF:  I told AVG that in my conversation with him ... I've come across so many men who think like that character; it came as no shock whatsoever

 CG:  Last Saturday at the Book Fair there was a talk/seminar about censorship and I was one of the speakers, and that's exactly what I was saying: it's sad that in 2009 we're actually still having these conversations, about whether adults should be allowed to read explicit language

 JF:  ... and women! I’m completely driven insane by the fact that they’re saying that it’s offensive to women. It’s so archaic and patronizing.

 CG:  Especially since no woman seems to have complained about it! But it's equally sad that many people haven't spoken up in public. Everyone grumbles privately, of course, but how many 'official' persons have you seen writing to the papers denouncing it?

JF:  To me that was even more shocking ... The fact that student bodies like KSU eventually issued a statement that they didn't want to be involved in the debate or something along those lines.

 CG:  I believe the KSU president said he refused to even read the story! I know it's obvious, but where do you draw the line? If we allow this episode to pass, what happens when next time someone censors a story that's critical of, say, the government?

 JF:  Yes, that's what it was. It's good that at least the issue of censorship was brought up in the Book Fair, rather than not even address it

 CG:  Yes, to their credit the Book Fair organisers dedicated the Saturday evening to it. But the turnout for the event was 25 people!

 JF:  That’s sad

 CG:  And of course almost everyone in the audience was involved in the arts, so not really 'general public'

 JF:  Yes, the general public is quite apathetic ... that's one of the frustrations about Malta ... it’s complain, complain, complain but no action

 CG:  That's why I brought it up on the Thursday night because I knew there'd be a good-sized audience.

 JF:  You’re very good at promoting your books. There's always an event tied up to them. You’re good at creating a buzz.

 CG:  Thing is, it's not easy to justify the spend when marketing budgets on books are minuscule, so that forces you to be creative. But yes, I disagree with the purists who want books to feel 'elitist' and above 'marketing gimmicks'. I'm often accused of 'cheapening' literature by associating books and launches to fun. The truth is that in Malta the typical book launch will consist of a panel of 'experts' reading pre-written speeches of 6-7 pages, to a yawning audience. I refuse to do that. Apart from the fact that even from a practical point of view, it's preaching to the converted and financially useless. I want people who haven't read a Maltese book in years, to come to the launches and have fun -then, they might say 'ah, perhaps this isn't so boring. Let's give it a go'

 JF:  I totally agree with that. That's what happened to me with Stagno. It was the pencil case that did it!

 CG:  Exactly. I mean, the pencil case was a gimmick, obviously. But it got you to want to have a look at the book. Obviously, then it's up to the text to be up-to-scratch. Even at the Book Fair, we got people talking of marketing as if it were some 4-letter word. I admit it's marketing, obviously, but what on earth is wrong with that? I mean, at Mejlak's launch, we had 4 artists in the background doodling onto an overhead projector - one of them, Austin Camilleri was actually burning plastic on the projector!

 JF: The notion, as you say, is that books and literature are only for the elite ... I suppose it helps keep the establishment comfortable on its pedestal

CG:  Yes, yes and yes. In fact it's been parts of the establishment who didn't come out publicly against the AVG censorship. The funny thing of course, is that now some of them are approaching me to publish one of their books and give it the 'Merlin' treatment (marketing-wise). The irony...

 JF:  Typical ... you should force them to include zbub in their texts

 CG:  Haha, probably they'd argue that their zbub are acceptable, because they’re "literature"

 JF:  Of course, they're clean zbub that do not degrade women and are only used for procreation! Is there a text that you would really like to lay your hands on? What’s the book you dream of publishing?

CG:  Nice question ... I wouldn't mind publishing Alfred Sant, actually. I loved his last-but-one book, L-Ghalqa tal-Iskarjota and I got totally upset that it hadn't been edited come si deve. And I've been dreaming for years of a serialisation project, but the distribution and retail-chains situation being what it is in Malta, I wouldn't stand a chance in hell of selling it.

 JF:  Why is that?

 CG:  Because in Malta, excluding the Agenda chain and literally 2 other bookshops, the rest are not so much bookshops as stationers-cum-haberdasheries-cum-corner-shops that stock some books on a couple of shelves. So you can't have something like a serialisation going on (entailing weekly or monthly nationwide distributions) when you have to rely on your main competitor for that. Keep in mind that the importation, distribution and retail of around 90-95% of all trade (ie. non-children's) books and of practically 100% of magazines and part-works, are in the hands of the same company.

 JF:  Well I hope you'll find your way around that one. It sounds like it could be an interesting project. But in the meantime, what's up next at Merlin?

 CG:  Well of course 11th December is THE date everyone's been waiting for - the final installment in the Fiddien trilogy (of Sqaq l-Infern fame) - it's been the fastest-selling series ever in Malta, and though technically a children's book has become a genuine crossover title. We're having 2 separate launches, one for kids (with animation and stuff) and one for adults - a cool nightclub vibe in a vault at Birgu Waterfront.

 JF:  I know many grown-ups who are addicted to that

 CG:  Then, next year we're publishing our first thriller in Maltese - I'm very excited about that. Plus of course people are asking about a Tsek-tsik sequel, and I'm rather partial to that, seeing as it was my baby ... We'll see, I think an "expat” Tsek-tsika would be cool, but of course it'll be a logistic nightmare to organize it when everyone is in Malta. Maybe it’ll be some time over Christmas.

 JF:  That would be interesting ... all the 'exiles' can have their say.

 CG:  exactly. Would you be interested? Lol

JF:  Sure, if I'm there.... Keep me posted

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