I would like to pay tribute to the staff of Air Malta Baggage Services who, for two weeks, have painstakingly pursued a suitcase, belonging to my husband and me, which failed to arrive with us from Heathrow airport. This case contained a large number of books, documents and papers essential to the work of both of us; and the loss of it has caused both extreme inconvenience and also two weeks of serious worry that irretrievable documents, including some from remote places in Sri Lanka and Thailand, might never be found.

The case was not caught up in the much-publicised Terminal 5 fiasco and it was not a bag in transit. Nevertheless it disappeared. Daily conversations with Air Malta staff reassured me they were doing everything possible to contact Heathrow airport for information, yet responses were never forthcoming.

After two weeks of pursuing various possibilities, the staff eventually received the bag at Malta airport. It had apparently been in the Heathrow lost baggage mountain, then taken to Milan, and then back to Gatwick (!) before finally boarding an Air Malta flight to Luqa. I wish my husband and I had the air miles of the suitcase.

So, sincere thanks to Air Malta's Baggage Services staff for their unfailing patience, efforts and sympathy throughout this saga; also to Air Malta for not having mice in the baggage holds of its planes - our two-week-old pieces of Northumberland cheese have arrived in Gozo intact.