THETIS, The Admiralty Regrets, a Bebington publisher's re-print account of the sinking of the Birkenhead-built sub, is back in the shops for Christmas after a quick sell out at launch. It has helped re-new public interest in the disaster. Bebington based publisher Dave Roberts, with Wirral Globe and Howard Mortimer, special projects officer with Wirral Council, is looking at the possibility of a monument, in Birkenhead, to Thetis.

The Thetis book, by C. Warren and J. Benson, provokes thought and controversy over the sinking in Liverpool Bay, just before the start of WWII. There is a foreword by Derek Arnold, son of Leading Stoker Walter Arnold, one of the few who survived. The Radio Merseyside play on Thetis, Close Enough To Touch is reflected in our picture (right) courtesy of Wirral Museums.

Now another new book could be equally well read and controversial. Sailors' Tale, by Alan Matthews, is the story of life onboard HMS Repulse during WWII.

It tells the last moments of the battlecruiser HMS Repulse, when she and the Birkenhead battleship HMS Prince of Wales, were sunk by Japanese aircraft.

We have as prizes a copy of Thetis, The Admiralty Regrets, plus a a new video All in a Day's Work, a look at working life on the River Mersey, by Avid Video. Just put down on a postcard the name of the person, who writes the foreword in Thetis, The Admiralty Regrets. Send it into Thetis Contest, Wirral Globe, Catherine Street, Birkenhead.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.