The letter ‘Memories of Christmas’ (December 19) brought back memories of Christmas Day, 1955.

My RAF night-fighter squadron was based at Luqa and I had been invited out to Christmas lunch by Maltese friends. They had a 19-year-old daughter (I was 22) and were sort of match-making in a very chaste way. (Everything was very chaste in those days!)

I was driving in my newly-bought Austin A-55, my pride and joy. It had rained heavily earlier that morning but the sun was out and the roads were drying. Driving around a curve in a pretty narrow lane, the car started to spin. It did one complete 360-degree spin and then, without pause, a second complete revolution.

The lane was about as wide as the car was long but I completed two very fast, complete revolutions without hitting anything or damaging the car in any way. Something more than the sun was obviously looking down on me.

Christmas lunch was great, the beautiful daughter and I held hands but that was as far as it went.

It is a Christmas memory that has stayed with me forever.

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