<xsl:value-of...> not getting through

Hi all,

I'm trying output an HTML anchor using the content of 'item' (plain
text). If I replace the value-of element with plain text it works
fine, but with the value-of element in place I get nothing...

  <xsl:template match="item">
    <xsl:if test="./@link">
      <a href="{./@link}"><xsl:value-of select="." /></a><br />
    </xsl:if>
  </xsl:template>

Whu is this?  Any help much appreciated.  I'm stumped.

sdt