About 10 years ago I bought a battered 1919 Kodak vest pocket camera. It was a sentimental purchase, acquired to replace a similar (lost) camera given to me a long time ago by an elderly lady with whom I’d become friendly during an archaeological excavation in Dover, Kent (another story). I discovered that inside the camera was an exposed 127 film.

Ghost photographs!

I kept the firm, tightly spooled, in a desk drawer until a couple of weeks ago, when I finally took it to the MMU photo technicians and persuaded one of them to develop it for me. “Come back in a week,” I was told. I dutifully waited seven days, and presented myself at the photography desk. Yes, he’d developed the film, yes, it had a few usable images (of maritime scenes) on it and…it had disappeared.

My precious ghost photographs had been taken from the drying cabinet  by another student!

Perhaps the technician will manage to retrieve my negatives. Perhaps not! I’m devastated!