A PERSONAL book of handwritten poetry from the war years has been discovered in Studley - and now the hunt is on for its owner.

The red hardback book, which is 5 x 8ins, contains about 40 poems written between 1940 and 1943 from a man named Victor Neal to his wife, Florrie.

Information is scant but it appears Mr Neal was serving in the forces and seems to have been hospitalised in summer 1940, possibly after Dunkirk.

He writes poems from Pontefract Military Hospital and later Whipps Cross Hopsital and later on in the book, a poem is "made up by the boys on the troop ship Orontees, for our concert, whilst travelling south towards Cape Town, June 1942."

Another poem is written in Egypt in 1942 before El Alamein and there are others from Egypt and just before the push into Sicily.

Many of the poems refer to Florrie and are deeply personal, others relate to the ongoing war effort.

It is not known whether the poems were collected in the book as they were written or compiled later.

The book was discovered in a house clearance in Studley and is now in the possession of Brenda Lancaster, of Kinwarton Road, Alcester.

Anyone who can help Mrs Lancaster in her search can call the Advertiser on 453539.