AN AUTHOR has had the story of his Isle of Wight childhood published this month — 60 years after it was written. Peter Stark Lansley’s manuscript was discovered by son, Dr Charles Lansley, following his mother's death in 2013, having been completed in the early 1960s. The autobiographical novel is a true story of a child’s 1920s Isle of Wight upbringing by his grandparents. With his father away at sea with the Navy, Peter was brought up by his mother Annie, a school teacher, and her parents — initially in East Cowes and later Wootton, then known as Woodside Villa. Written from a child‘s world view, the book offers a glimpse into the Island's landscape of a century yore, and is driven by the magical and loving relationship between Peter and his grandparents, William and Harriette Stark.