A biography of French knight Jacques François de Chambray, a unique figure in the navy of the Order of St John, has been published.

Unbeaten in all of his maritime encounters, Chambray also amassed a considerable fortune which he dedicated completely to build the fort in Gozo that bears his name and which was meant to serve as a city for the population of an island he had come to love.

Joseph Scicluna’s Jacques François Chambray. The Order He Served, the Island He loved, and the Fort He Built, is the first exhaustive study of the man, his achievements, and the vicissitudes he experienced to build the fort which dominates Mġarr harbour. The 500+ pages include hundreds of illustrations, several of them being published for the first time.

The Kite publication is available at leading bookshops or directly from the author, who can be contacted on 9942 9422.

To mark the book’s publication, Heritage Malta is hosting a lecture by the author, Scicluna, and military historian Stephen C. Spiteri under the patronage of the French Ambassador to Malta, Agnès Von der Mühll, at the Malta Maritime Museum in Vittoriosa, on January 16 at 7pm.

The lecture will be preceded by introductory speeches by Liam Gauci, curator of the Malta Maritime Museum, and the French ambassador.

The presentation will be in English and admission is free.