FIRST-EDITION George Orwell novels and a Victoria Crowe painting are to open the Christian Aid book sale in Edinburgh.
Starting tomorrow, the week-long St Andrews and St George’s West Book Sale will include first editions of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm, as well as a signed, limited first edition of TS Eliot’s Dante.
Part of Christian Aid Week, the sale is believed to be the biggest charity book sale in the UK – though 48 years ago it began with just a few books in the church’s courtyard.
The Very Rev Dr John Chalmers, locum minister at St Andrew’s and St George’s West Church, said: “I am in awe at the scale of the operation to organise this extraordinary book sale, but it is so much more than a book sale.
“This is an enterprise delivered by people who also want to change the world.
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“When you come to this sale you will take home any number of good books, but you will also be doing untold good in the life of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.”
More than 60,000 books and collectables have been donated, including a library of Scottish books donated by the family of Leith Civic Trust founder Margaret Street MBE.
Renowned Scottish artist Victoria Crowe also donated one of her “very beautiful watercolours” named In Santa Trinita, Florence.
“Crowe is one of Scotland’s greatest and most popular artists and is being celebrated this summer with two exhibitions in Edinburgh at the Edinburgh City Art Centre and The Scottish Gallery,” added James Holloway, the sale’s art convener and former director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
Since the start of the Edinburgh sale in 1974, it has raised more than £10 million for Christian Aid’s work with some of the world’s poorest communities.
Kirsty Wark, journalist and this year’s patron, said: “I am so delighted to support the book sale and I hope the crowds rush in, in search of a good read.”
The sale opens at 10am tomorrow and lasts until Friday, May 17.
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