A TAVISTOCK bookshop has been left an extraordinary donation of 2,300 antiquarian titles, in the will of a regular customer.

Andres Nurmela’s book collection, which includes hundreds of many valuable and beautifully bound items, is set to raise thousands of pounds for the charity Oxfam.

Manager of the Oxfam Books and Music Shop Val Sharpe said this week they owned Andres ‘a huge, huge thank you’

Andres kept the promise he made to Val before he died and left all his books to the place where he spent many enjoyable hours over the last 10 years.

The Okehampton resident travelled by bus to Tavistock every Tuesday and without fail would pop into the bookshop.

Val said she got to know Andres well over the years: ‘He was a real book lover, as well as a customer. He was interested in books and bindings, the older the better! He always looked at the more valuable books in the cabinets and frequently bought some.’

After the first lockdown ended and the shop opened up again Andres told Val that he had been diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy.

‘He stated quite clearly on several occasions that he was going to leave his books to the Oxfam Bookshop in Tavistock when he died, it was what he wanted and he knew the shop would value them,’ said Val. ‘It must have been a difficult conversation to have.’

In April this year the shop was contact by the executors to Andres’ will. They said Andres had passed away at the end of January and he had indeed left his whole book collection to the Oxfam bookshop.

Val continued: ‘The executors were in Brighton, the books were in Okehampton, and it took a fair bit of organising, a number of volunteers, a fleet of cars and lots of boxes to get the donation to Tavistock!

‘What we did not realise was just how much of a book collector Andres was. It transpired that he also did his own book restoration, hence his interest in bindings.

‘He was a delightful man, loved coming into the shop on Tuesdays, he was always helpful when asked for advice about books. He never divulged the scale of his interest nor the size of his book collection so we were in for a huge surprise.

‘This was quite extraordinary and hugely generous bequest.

‘We have worked closely with the executors to get all the books from Andres’ house in Okehampton and now have the huge task and responsibility to go through them, and to sell them on to others, through the shop or through our online shop, to raise funds for Oxfam.

‘We feel hugely honoured to have them, many are very old, date from 18th and early 19th century and cover a huge range of genres and subjects.

‘There are a number of the books (added to and changed weekly) in the Collectables area in the shop, ongoing, for a long time yet. We are looking forward to doing lots of research, learning a lot and enjoying the whole process. We owe Andres a huge, huge thank you.’

The books range in value from £20 to more than £1,000 and include such gems as a first edition, fourth impression Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management from 1866. A shop window display has been created from Andres’ books by Sue Bamford, who delivers the art access course at Plymouth College.

The shop is taking donations every day and anyone with any books or music that they wish to donate is asked to phone first on 01822 613901 to confirm when is a good time to drop it off.