Mario Lanza ghost writer calls at office

The Black Country's mystery artist has been at it again - this time leaving one of his special beer mats in an A-board outside the Express & Star's main building.

The artist known as AJW, who has never been properly identified but has spent the last 50 years leaving his art work all over the city and beyond, left this calling card outside our Queen Street offices yesterday.

There are believed to have been around 2,000 cards left in pubs and phone boxes around the Black Country since the death of the real-life American-Italian opera singer Mario Lanza in 1959.

The mysterious ghost writer has been leaving cards everywhere, all bearing the Mario Lanza caricature, usually with a picture of him and initials AJW.

Despite some alleged sightings of a man with a rain coat and hat leaving the cards, nobody has been able to pin him down. Members of the public have phoned telephone numbers on the cards, with a man usually answering to say he will pass on regards to the artist.