POLITICIANS in Wyre Forest have put pen to paper for two very different accounts of life during wartime.

Liberal district and county councillor, Mike Oborski, has just published a history of a Polish passenger ship sunk during the Second World War while Labour's Nigel Knowles, who sits on Bewdley Town Council, has been commended for a short story based in Iraq.

Councillor Oborski, who is a member of Wyre Forest District Council and Worcestershire County Council and is the Polish Consul for the West Midlands, said his interest in M/S Pilsudski arose from a family connection.

"The ship was named after the former head of state, Jozef Pilsudski, and my grandfather was a colonel on his staff."

An interest in Pilsudski led him to the ship, which hit a German bomb off the British coast in 1939. He is now co-chairman of the M/S Pilsudski Society.

He said: "I was wasting some time on the internet and I came across an ashtray for sale from the ship and it went from there."

Research for the booklet, Ship of State, M/S Pilsudski - The Tragic Glory, involved a visit to the Central Maritime Museum in Gdansk, where Mr Oborski said he hoped to organise an exhibition about the ship next year.

He added he felt the booklet was "the final piece of the jigsaw" as he had tracked down memorabilia from America, the destination of the ship since its maiden voyage in 1935.

Bewdley resident, Nigel Knowles, is one of four winning entries in the "Short Cuts" short story competition and will read his entry - about life in war-torn Iraq - at Midlands Art Centre in Birmingham on Thursday, September 30.

He said: "It is called Letters from Basra and is a piece of fiction about an ex-soldier who works with security personnel in Basra guarding business people. It is his letters home to his girlfriend in England."

Mr Knowles said he had taken a keen interest in the deluge of UK security companies being set up in Iraq: "It is a completely realistic story from a young man who is in a very dangerous situation.

"They have to escort these people around and it is very scary. I have read a lot about these companies and all sorts of people do the work."

The event will be hosted by novelist, Helen Cross, author of My Summer of Love, and tickets are available on 0121 440 3838.

Ship of State, M/S Pilsudski - The Tragic Glory is available from Mr Oborski on 01562 823911.