"It remains an extraordinary story," said Mathew Lyons in Literary Review. On 18 May 1565, an Ottoman fleet of some 200 ships carrying more than 25,000 soldiers appeared off Malta, to be joined later by 5,000 corsairs (North African privateers). Defending the island were 470 knights of the Order of St John – otherwise known as the Hospitallers – supported by a few thousand professional soldiers and the local population. Despite the odds against them, and despite losing the key fort of St. Elmo after three weeks of "bombardment and slaughter", the knights held on. After four months the Turks gave up, having fired their cannons – by one knight's reckoning – 70,000 times.
The victory was celebrated by Christian countries long after as a key counterblow to Ottoman expansion; but, as Marcus Bull argues in this "engrossing" book, it ultimately made little difference. Malta was of minimal strategic importance, and defeat did not temper the Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent's ambitions. To convey this without detracting from the drama of the siege is a tricky balancing act, but Bull pulls it off with "aplomb".
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