IT'S a classic Brighton love story. Bernard and Mary Bush, of Tivoli Crescent, first met as teenagers during the Forties.

They became separated by war, but were reunited on the other side of the world almost 30 years later.

Then they set sail on a classic journey of romance and adventure from Brighton, Sussex, to Brighton, Australia.

Now more than 50 years after they first met, Bernard has published a book about his love affair with Mary and their journey around the globe.

Bernard, 75, originally from Hove, met Mary, 74, while living briefly in Exeter at the outbreak of the Second World War.

At just 16 they fell in love and remained together for two years until Bernard joined the RAF and Mary became a nurse and moved to Birmingham.

Gradually they drifted apart, with Mary meeting her husband Jack, and Bernard meeting his wife Barbara.

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After the war Bernard and Mary both moved to Brighton, but they were still thousands of miles from each other.

Bernard came to Brighton, Sussex, while Mary moved to a little suburb of Melbourne, also called Brighton.

They settled down with their new families but in the late Sixties, just after Mary's husband died, Bernard visited Australia with his family and arranged to meet Mary.

And when Bernard and Mary met for the first time in almost 30 years their love affair was rekindled.

Bernard and his wife soon divorced and he was once again with Mary.

Bernard said: "It was quite nerve-racking meeting her after all that time and it was quite a risky thing to do when you think about it as we were so much in love when we were younger. But the love was still there."

Mary said: "I decided to leave Australia and move to England with Bernard which I suppose was quite a brave thing to do.

"Brighton in Australia is more laid back than Brighton here. But I don't regret coming back to England for one minute."

Amazingly Bernard and Mary, while apart for all those years, had the same hobby - sailing.

Mary was a member of Australia's only all-female yacht club while Bernard was a keen sailor in the Sussex area.

And because of their passion for the sea they decided to take a year off and celebrate their reunion by sailing from Brighton, Sussex, to Brighton, Australia.

They set sail in October, 1974, from Chichester Harbour in Bernard's 38ft yacht, The Mameena, with the intention of reaching Australia within a year.

During the journey, which included stops at the Canary Islands, Panama, Tonga and Fiji, they were joined by old friends and people they picked up on the way to help crew the vessel.

Bernard said: "It was wonderful, meeting so many new people and seeing so many places.

"However we couldn't sail to Australia as planned. When we got to Tonga we had only a month left and we realised we would never make it in time.

"It was there we met up with another traveller, Ron Smart. We got on immediately and he agreed to sail the boat on for the rest of the journey while we flew ahead."

However disaster struck when Ron and his crew reached Fiji. They hit a storm and the boat was sunk. Luckily all on board survived.

Bernard, who used to run family firm Bush Signs, has written four books since his retirement.

His first three were humourous novels, but he decided that now it was time to write his own love story.

The book is called Whatever Happened To Thursday?, the title relating to the time they crossed the international date line at Tonga, going straight from Wednesday to Friday, skipping Thursday.

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