In 2002 a woman found a bright blue tear-shaped bottle washed up on a beach on the south coast of England.
It contained a letter written in French bound in a blue ribbon. The bottle also contained two locks of hair.
The letter was a farewell message to a 13-year-old boy called Maurice who had died.
The woman who found it sent it to the writer Karen Liebreich for translation into English.
Karen was so moved by the letter that she spent seven years trying to find out who had written it and why.
When she came to the Outlook studio, she told Matthew Bannister more about what she discovered.
Karen Liebreich has told the full story in her book 'the Letter in the Bottle' published by Atlantic Books.