7:25pm Wednesday 10th January 2007
A COLLECTION of rare and out of print books on Africa is expected to raise £10,000 when it goes under the hammer.
The collection of more than than 3,000 books was put together by traveller Rosemary Goode, 75, originally from Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, who lives with her husband Barry in Kenya.
The books will be sold by Newcastle auctioneers Anderson & Garland on January 22 in a sale which has already attracted international interest. The collection is expected to fetch around 10,000.
"This is a once in a lifetime collection," said the firm's book specialist John Anderson, who has taken several weeks to catalogue the volumes.
"We have had collections related to specialist aspects of Africa's history and wildlife over the years but this collection covers every aspect from the early years of exploration to novels by famous authors set in various parts of this fascinating continent."
Rosemary Goode was born in 1931 as the daughter of Colonel Bernard Peatfield, who in his later years was Honorary Colonel of the 4/5 Battalion of the Royal Northumbrian Fusiliers and Deputy Lieutenant of the county.
"Her parents instilled in her a love of books, music, stamp collecting, animals, wildlife and in particular horses and riding," Mr Anderson said.
Rosemary studied Egyptology and in 1953 became the first graduate of the new Oriental Studies department of Durham University, leaving with a first.
In 1956 she and her husband went to Baghdad, where the first of their three daughters, Caroline, was born.
They moved to Dar es Salaam in what is now Tanzania and after 13 years to Nairobi, Kenya in 1971, where Rosemary ran her riding school for 25 years.
Mr Anderson said: "In the early 1980s the political situation in Kenya led her to pack up the most valuable items in her collection and send them to Newcastle."
Now the couple have decided to sell their Newcastle flat in which the collection is kept.
Among the titles for sale are: With My Wife Across Africa By Canoe & Caravan, Col JC Statham, 1924; Loafing Through Africa, Seth Humphrey, 1929; Lassoing Wild Animals in Africa, Guy Scull, 1911; With CT Studd in Congo Forests, Norman Grubb, 1946; A Woman Alone in Kenya, Uganda & the Belgian Congo, Etta Close, 1924; In Dwarf Land & Cannibal Country, Albert Lloyd, 1905; Three Boy Scouts in Africa, R Douglas, D Martin, D Oliver, 1928; With The Camel Corps Up The Nile, Count Gleichen, 1888; A White Woman in a Black Man's Country, Nettie Dietz, 1926; My Life With Stanley's Rearguard, Herbert Ward, 1891; When I First Saw The Congo, Grace Flandrau, 1929; Under the Cannibal Curse, D Du Berrie
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