The Lost Book

They say curiosity killed the cat so it’s a good thing we’re human and not feline or we surely would both have used up our nine lives years ago.

I’ve heard the groans from Librarians when they tell tales of requests for a book, vaguely remembered. “I’m looking for a book I read once where the hero was Fred, or it might have been Ted. He was a soldier or something, perhaps a cop. It was set in a town somewhere – I think.”

Alan has been looking for such a book for, literally, years. All he could remember was that it was set in Malta in World War II and featured 3 planes known as Faith, Hope, and Charity. He read it when he was a boy (many years ago) and it disappeared in some clear out or house move.

He scoured bookshops in Malta, searched online, asked Maltese friends. I checked with a Children’s books forum I belonged to. No one had heard of it. Then a few weeks ago Alan put the right query into Google and up it popped – ‘Island on The Beam’. With a title, he searched again and found 2 copies available for sale.

You will not be surprised to hear that he ordered both. One is now on a bookshelf and the other went off today off to a friend in Malta.

Alan tells the whole story at his website.