IT WAS only three days before the tsunami struck that Vijitha Yapa decided to give a day off to his staff of eight at his bookshop in Galle, though for the last 10 years they had worked on Boxing Day.

It took a shipwreck to turn John Graham into a giraffe. David Allen talks to an adventurer, peacemaker and risk-taker extraordinaire.

Walking along the slave routes of West Africa helped Kojo Jantuah to discover his identity-and his destiny.

Ann Rignall meets Pete and June Pemberton, who have fostered 360 children over the past 40 years.

Melville Carson tells Paul Williams about his'great escape' from guilt and bitterness.

John Paul II could capture anyone, and millions, not only by what he said but also by the way he was able to listen.

MY SEVEN-year-old son became really worried by the time I had won seven old pence on a machine in a seaside arcade, many years ago. ‘Stop it, Mum!’ he yelled, pulling me away. I did.

Seventeen military personnel and two civilians were killed. Most families of the victims added bitterness to their grief, but not 34-year-old Margherita Coletta from Avola in Sicily, who has lived out her Christian faith in a remarkable way.

Shabibi Shah has been longing to return home for 22 years: the reality was a shock.

Phyllis Cameron-Johnson tells Paul Williams how paying a train fare, meeting Navajo visitors to her school and a canoeing accident shaped her life.