£105 for a seven-day holiday!

The best answer phone message was left over the weekend by a dear old lady who'd spotted a gem of an advert in the Birmingham Mail... but the number she tried to call was out of order.

When I returned her call this morning she was so excited. "Do you think you can help?" I'll try, madam. "Well, the advert says here that we can get a seven-day holiday to the coast by coach for £105 each... that's amazing isn't it?" It certainly sounds like a good deal, madam.

"But when I call the number it's out of order. Do you have the right number?" I'm not sure, madam, but if you tell me when and where the advert was published I'll take a look and see what I can do. Was it definitely from the Birmingham Mail? "Yes, it was definitely the Mail, but because my husband cut it out I don't know which day it was from."

Can you remember the name of the company advertising the break? "Yes, National Coaches, it's here in the advert." (Quick live Google search). Well there is a number here, madam, but it appears to be a northern company serving people living in the north. I've got the number if you want to try it. It's 0870 (etc). "No, dear, the number I have here is 0121 622 (etc), definitely not an 0870 number."

In the end, I asked the lady to see if she could trace the actual paper the advert was cut from, so that I could then make inquiries for her. Several hours later she called back, laughing. "You'll never guess what, dear, my husband's only just gone and cut out the advert from your archive edition in 1979!" (We print 8-pages from the past each Saturday, each page carrying an 'archive' watermark, but this reader had not noticed.)

Well, we laughed together, and she ended up thanking me for my trouble. Thinking about it, though, I may speak to my Reader Travel colleagues and see if there's some deal we can offer this couple who thought they'd found such a great deal in their Birmingham Mail.

This might make a good story and, well, it's the least we can do.