Charity shop's rare copy of The Hobbit sells for a record £3,000

Have you ever donated books to a charity shop after you've read them?

Well, one charity shop in Stirling couldn't believe its luck after it received a very rare edition of The Hobbit as a donation.

The charity shop's Longmans edition of The Hobbit is more than 50 years old and is one of just 50 copies believed to still exist today.

Items sold in these shops raise money to help fund the charity, and this book was sold for £3,000 - a record amount for the shop.

The Hobbit, written by JRR Tolkien, is an iconic fantasy book first published in 1937, which inspired a famous film series of the same name.

The Longmans editions of the book were published as part of a Pleasure in Reading series, which would likely have been sent to primary school libraries.

Only about 1,500 copies of this edition were ever printed, and they feature a colourful illustration of the dragon Smaug on the front cover.

It was given to a bookshop run by global poverty charity Oxfam, which says that it was sold as part of second-hand Christmas shopping.

Neil Paterson, who runs the Oxfam bookshop in Stirling, said the book caused "a real buzz in the shop".

He said: "It's a beautiful old copy with its own bit of mystery and magic about it; the sort of find every bookseller dreams of.

"We couldn't be more thrilled that one generous donation has turned into thousands of pounds to help Oxfam's work tackling poverty and injustice around the world."