EXETER historian Peter Thomas has told of the letter he received 17 years ago that led to a treasure trove of never-before-seen photographs of wartime Exeter.

They are to come together into a new book, One Man's War in Exeter, with photographs by that letter writer, Ken Jackson

The book, out this summer, contains over 200 photographs along with contemporary reports from the Echo.

Mr Thomas' involvement with the project stretches back nearly 20 years.

He said: "In 1993 I received a letter from a man in the Channel Islands who told me that he had been given a video to watch on the Exeter Blitz.

"He went on to inform me that he had been in Exeter just after the war and had taken a lot of photos relating to VE Day and VJ day and had photographed a number of military parades and wondered whether I would be interested to see them.

"I sent him a copy of my book Fire on the Wind about the Exeter blitz to see if his photos were in any way similar. Returning the book, he told me he was producing a video of images for me to see and this showed me that his images were unlike any others I had seen. He also included a list and details.

"It became obvious to me that his photographs uniquely captured a period in Exeter when very few photographs were taken but, above all, showed how Exeter rose out of the misery of war.

"The scenes at the time are never likely to be repeated, thankfully, therefore these records are a vital link to this period in time.

"After expressing my interest our relationship was to continue. He was a keen photographer and attentive to detail with a pretty good recall of happenings at the time. However, in our long relationship of now 17 years, we have never met.

"At the time of our connection he was 76, he is now 93. What I was not aware of is that he had degenerating sight and is now virtually blind. Despite this handicap he has persevered and given me every possible help, in this respect he has been quite remarkable.

Mr Jackson worked for the GPO in Exeter and managed to acquire small amounts of film for his Leica camera.

Mr Thomas said: "The negatives taken at the time were eventually copied but it has been time-onsuming work to restore them and to organise them."