Olivia Haysman-Walker spotted a rare first US edition of To Kill a Mockingbird in a charity shop donation box at Portobello Road in west London. The book has been acquired by the British Library and will join its national collection.
Haysman-Walker said: “There were lots of books to work through in the donation, but we recognised To Kill a Mockingbird and thought it was worth taking a closer look.” She added: “We realised quite quickly that we had something really special.”
Portobello Road and
The copy of Harper Lee’s 1960 novel was found among donated American books at the Portobello Road Oxfam shop. Haysman-Walker identified it as a first US edition, then described the condition in detail: “The dust jacket showed its age, and although it was worn around the edges, the pages inside were in beautiful condition.”
The book moved from a donation box into the British Library and is now headed for the national collection. That path is the point of the story: a title with broad demand can still surface in routine second-hand sorting, and the value sits in spotting the detail before it disappears back onto a shelf.
Second Hand September
Oxfam said the discovery came during Second Hand September, its annual campaign encouraging people to buy second-hand. Haysman-Walker called it “a lovely reminder, during Second Hand September, of the kind of treasures that can be hiding among the shelves and donations in our shops.”
She also said: “It's amazing to think that this book has passed through our Oxfam bookshop and into the national collection at the British Library.” The novel has sold more than 40 million copies around the world and has been translated into 40 languages, but this copy stood out because it was identified while still mixed in with ordinary donated stock.
Harper Lee in Alabama
To Kill a Mockingbird tells the story of lawyer Atticus Finch defending Tom Robinson, a Black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman. Set in Alabama in 1934, the novel won the Pulitzer Prize. Harper Lee died in 2016 at the age of 89.
For bookshop staff, the practical lesson is plain enough: donated boxes can hold items whose worth is easy to miss at first glance. In this case, the decisive step was careful sorting, followed by a closer look that moved the book out of ordinary stock and into a national collection.
