Philippa Stevenson: Booking a profit for charity

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Could every New Zealand home once have had a copy of the book Lord Cobham's Speeches?

It's hard to imagine people now flocking to buy one recent speech let alone six years' of them but Lord Cobham - Governor-General from 1957 to 1962 - was a crowd pleaser long after everyone had left the building.

"The people of New Zealand have literally demanded this book," said publishers Wilson and Horton on the fly cover in 1963.

Forty-odd years later the number of copies donated each year to the annual Red Cross secondhand book fair in Hamilton indicates just how many have been in circulation, and that Lord Cobham's appeal has finally worn off.

As they have for the past seven years, sisters Jenny Beckett and Philippa Robertson have been sorting donated books dropped off at Red Cross offices and BP stations from Auckland to Gisborne since April.

As the trickle of packed boxes has turned to a torrent closer to the four-day fair, Thursday to Sunday next week, the women have shifted from sorting at home, to Hamilton's Red Cross hall and, finally, to the fair venue at the Te Rapa Racecourse.

Last year the core seven-member book fair group and a few helpers handled up to 17,000 books of which around 15,000 made it to the 20 subject categories and neatly stacked tables.

Selling mostly at $1 or $2 a book, the biggest book fair in the Waikato put about $34,000 in the deserving coffers of the Red Cross midland region. Income has built from around $6000 in 1997 to average $30,000, a remarkable return on what some regard as musty trash.

But, oh, the treasures that are unearthed. The book-mad sisters say sorting the books becomes addictive and after spending a few hours with them I found out why. Each new box could reveal a valuable rare book, illustrate another passing literary phase or be commentary on Kiwi life.

Paul Holmes' biography was quick to turn up at past fairs, the recent Jonah Lomu book has made an appearance this year, there's always plenty on or by Robert Muldoon and Bob Jones and, of course, Lord Cobham.

Robertson is pen pals with one of Cobham's eight children and has previously shipped unsold copies of the speeches to Britain for the Cobham grandchildren. But eight more books have surfaced this year and "we're running out of grandchildren", she says.

I spy a copy of a book I've lent to I-don't-know-who. Could it be mine? The one-time owner's name inside says no but Robertson did once find a book with her father's name inside so my thought is not too far-fetched.

I peruse "literature" and find Plato's Republic, Machiavelli's The Prince, Aristotle's The Politics, Dickens, D. H. Lawrence, Somerset Maugham and Oscar Wilde.

The problem of categorising is obvious in "health and beauty" where I find The Complete Book of Love and Sex cosying up with the medical tome, Pathologic Basis of Disease.

Robertson and Beckett have learned much about valuable books from Frank Bailey, who manages Collectors Corner.

They can easily spot a pricey Biggles, a Rupert annual or Zane Grey's Angler's Eldorado but Bailey's thoughtfully provided a long list of sought-after books to consult when he's absent.

As in past years, Bailey expects to unearth at least six books that he'll auction for up to $150, and there are plenty more in brackets well above the giveaway prices of the main fair floor.

"There are always a few gems that get away," he says, "that is why the dealers arrive in force. It all adds to the fun and excitement."

And the profit. Last year, the fair took $19,000 on its frantic first day.

A testament to our ongoing love of books, Waikato's Red Cross book fair is just one of many held throughout the year.

A Statistics NZ survey found that purchasing books was our most popular cultural activity. More than 1.2 million people, or 44 per cent of the adult population, reported buying at least one book in the four weeks before the survey.

The vast majority (84 per cent) bought up to six books but a bookworm 14 per cent bought up to 20.

No one can resist. A man helping cart boxes spies a book on World War II and would like it. Beckett puts it aside for him to pick up later. Another satisfied reader, another sale for a good cause.

* Email Philippa Stevenson