A Harry Potter book bought by a mum for £10 almost 30 years ago could now sell at auction for £50,000. Christine McCulloch, 64, was watching JK Rowling being interviewed about her new book on the BBC children's show in 1997. The author mentioned Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was proving popular with both boys and girls so Christine snapped up a copy for her son Adam.
She paid around £10 at a bookshop in Kenilworth, Warks., during a holiday to Shakespeare's Stratford-on-Avon. Little did she know she had bought her seven-year-old son what would become one of the most valuable books in the world.
The first edition is one of only 500 hardback copies published in the first ever Potter book print-run in 1997 and is among the the rarest and most sought-after by fans. It could now fetch between £30,000-£50,000 at Rare Book Auctions in Lichfield, Staffs., when it goes under the hammer on November 27.
Owner Adam McCulloch, 35, a musician and marketing manager from Tansley, Matlock, Derbyshire, said: “Mum liked Blue Peter as a child and used to watch the show with us. "I was seven, just about to turn eight, when we purchased the book on our family holiday with my dad to Stratford. Mum thinks she paid the standard retail price, about £10.
It was on display in the window and she recognised it from Blue Peter. "For a time the book ended up in a cupboard under the stairs in our old house in Chesterfield - like Harry Potter! I did have the luxury of an actual bedroom but.
