'I found my lost childhood book at car boot sale'

Simon Papouis wrote his name and address on the front page of the book when he was a child

A man who said he lost all his belongings as a child said he had been “stunned” to rediscover one of his childhood books at a car boot sale.

Simon Papouis, from Worthing, West Sussex, was eight years old when he was given the book ET – the Extra Terrestrial.

In 2003, Simon was at a car boot sale in Surrey when he spotted the same ET book with his name and old address written on the inside of the front page cover.

Since then, Simon has been on a mission to replace all the toys – and has already spent more than £50,000 doing so.

Simon was an avid collector of Lego during his childhood

“But when I spotted the ET book at a car boot sale it was like seeing an old friend – and when I saw the writing I felt sick, it felt like a set-up,” he said.

Simon is slowly rebuilding his collection of lost childhood belongings, he told BBC Radio Sussex.

It has cost Simon thousands of pounds to replace his lost toys

In fact, he recently spent £10,000 on an unopened Tamiya Sand Scorcher model car kit, just like the one he had in the 1980s.

The 49-year-old now runs The Cine Film Factory, specialists in transferring old film to modern formats.

The company has even consulted on an episode of the BBC’s Repair Shop, where a man needed help reviving 8mm film of his young family from the 1950s and 60s.