One of the most covetous treasures found on planes that crashed in Malta during World War II were parachutes.

Parachutes were made of a fine material similar to silk that women used to turn into blouses, dresses, pillow cases and clothes for children.

Usually, the parachute would be hanging on to the pilots that baled out but German aviators used to commit suicide before reaching the ground...

Lina Brockdorff, author of Sireni U Serenati (Sirens and serenades), recounts: "One day we managed to find part of a parachute and rushed home with it. We had heard stories told of people who used to ransack the bodies of dead German fighter pilots nicking shoes, watches and rings and then start kicking the corpse in a frenzy of hatred".

It is an example of how people survived the war years by putting all their wits and improvisation skills together to replace everyday items that got broken or worn out and that could not be found in shops because of the war.

Ms Brockdorff née Mahoney, who was nine when the war broke out, spices her account of the war years with colourful episodes seen from a young girl's world.

With a seasoned pen she describes moving house from Vittoriosa because of the raids and moving to Sliema and later as refugees to Hal Bajjada Street, in Rabat where the family spent about three years.

The thrilling account recalls the Mahoneys' relocation to Cathedral Street, Sliema, as the fighting abated. There the centre of interest was a shop run by a Mrs Bonnett and the house where she and her family lived for a time close to Stella Maris church, a building nowadays used by the church for Christian doctrine lessons among other activities.

The sireni in the title of the book refers to the air raid warnings and the serenati to the songs her father, of Irish stock, used to love to sing. Her mother Mary hailed from Gozo. A stupendous lineage known for the love of music and for enduring pressure in tough times.

Pushed by friends to write more after they heard on radio a short story of hers dealing with the war, she eventually sat down and did. But she put the manuscript in cold storage while she went to university to read religious studies and obtain a Masters in theology and humanities.

Ms Brockdorff started writing at the age 17 when she attended the teachers' training college. There, Maltese language scholar Guzé Aquilina used to reward his students with 10 shillings (today's equivalent of 50c) for every short story or essay they wrote and broadcast on radio.

"It was a great culture shock to go and live in Dingli, leaving the school of St Joseph in Cathedral Street with all our delicate deportment where if you as much as uttered a word in Maltese you were penalised by having 'to pay a penny for the poor'.

"And to move to a classful of boys taught by a teacher called il-Bizzu! The boys did not like us because together with other refugees we had upset their way of life."

Books in this vein, penned with a heart on a sleeve, are bound to recall vivid memories to those who still remember the war. To others, Sireni U Serenati unveils an episode in Malta's social history that forms part of the bigger circle when most of Europe was devastated by war.