Harry Potter First Edition Makes £150,000

The first edition of the first Harry Potter book, published in 1997, contains a revealing commentary by the author and 22 of her own original illustrations.

The book, which brought Rowling worldwide fame, was sold to a telephone bidder at Sotheby's in central London.

Also going under the hammer at the First Editions, Second Thoughts auction was a copy of Roald Dahl's Matilda, with new illustrations by Quentin Blake, which sold for £30,000.

It achieved the second highest result of the evening.

The auction saw lots from 50 celebrated authors who had annotated, commented on or illustrated a first edition copy of one of their works.

Other highlights included Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains Of The Day, which sold for £18,000, Julian Barnes' Metroland, which made £14,000, and Alan Bennett's The Uncommon Reader, which fetched £11,000.

Others contributors included Margaret Atwood, Helen Fielding, Ian McEwan, Philip Pullman and Sir Tom Stoppard, with the night raising £439,200 for charity.

All proceeds from the auction go to English PEN, the founding centre of a worldwide writers’ organisation which campaigns on behalf of the freedom to write and the freedom to read. The body has 145 centres in more than 100 countries.

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