All it took was one dive at the Blue Grotto, in Żurrieq, and retired fireman Peter Lemon was hooked.

Nearly 30 years and 80 trips later, Mr Lemon has racked up an incredible 2,000 dives in Malta, becoming so enamoured with the Maltese waters and dive sites that he wrote a book that is now in its third edition.

Scuba Diving, Malta, Gozo, Comino is a labour of love for both Mr Lemon and his wife, Sue, who have painstakingly put together a manual of the best dive sites. Using Mr Lemon’s lump sum payout after 37 years in the fire service in Britain, the “hobby which turned into an obsession” took its form in the first edition, which had a print run of some 4,000 books in 2001.

Mr Lemon was always fascinated with diving but only managed to start at the age of 40 because of financial constraints.

He is now an advanced instructor with the British Sub Aqua Club.

The book has been a huge success and reflects the hard work the couple has put in and the love both share for Malta and the people they have met along their journey to the latest edition.

Compass in hand and with a special notebook and pen, Mr Lemon mapped out the dive sites underwater and then used an aerial photograph of the particular site to show what it looked like above and below the surface.

Asked what his favourite dive was, Mr Lemon said it would be almost impossible to answer because every dive was so special.

He reckons the best would probably be to the ship Um el Faroud in Żurrieq, which was scuttled on September 2, 1998, three-and-a-half years after nine dockyard workers were killed in an explosion on board.

“It is probably the best site in the Mediterranean,” he said.