This appeared in the Illustrated London News Christmas issue, on 13 November 1952, with illustrations by Victor Bertoglio, two of which are reproduced below. It formed almost the entire prose content of the magazine, alternating with pages of art reproductions.
John Fletcher, young architect and photographer, jumps over the wall of a villa in Italy in order to photgraph its fountains and takes a snap of an old man asleep that he assumes to be the caretaker. The picture is later published and the subject recognised by some villains as a British scientist visiting Italy, one they want to kidnap for the Russians. They fool Fletcher into telling them where the picture was taken, and are able to carry out the abduction. Fletcher now must join forces with the old man's escort, the glamorous daughter of an Italian scientist, in order to retrieve the situation. The climax involves escaping from flooded land near Ferrara on an improvised raft.
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Illustrated London News, 13 November 1952.
Included in
Italy and the Balkans, 2010.