Found: the lost £850 bookmark

Published: 29 July, 2010
by JOSH LOEB

A BATCH of secondhand books have provided their own happy ending – in the shape of an envelope containing £850.

David Tobin, who owns Walden Books in Chalk Farm, bought the  eight boxes of books from BBC documentary maker Dominic Sutherland. He was sorting through the boxes on Thursday and when he came to the last book in the last box – a hardback about the 1960s – he opened it and found a brown envelope containing the wad of cash.

He returned the money to Mr Sutherland, who called him over the weekend to thank him.

Mr Sutherland, who lives in Chalk Farm, said: “I am absolutely delighted to have the money back and am hugely grateful to David for his honesty. Although the notes are old they are still legal tender. This is indicative of the kind of man David is.”

As a token of his gratitude, Mr Sutherland would only take half of the price agreed for the books. Mr Tobin said: “I have found things in books before, like photographs and letters, but never anything like this. People keep all sorts of things inside books and then forget. 

“I once opened a book and found a picture of a nude lady holding a whip. She was the woman I had bought the book off.”

Mr Tobin has been running Walden Books for more than 30 years.

The shop’s customers have included novelists Beryl Bainbridge and Peter Ackroyd. Actor Simon Callow and Coldplay singer Chris Martin have also bought books from Mr Tobin.