Harry Potter book sets world record

A rare first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J K Rowling has sold at Bonham’s auction yesterday for a world record £106,250.

The copy was inscribed by the author to a friend and her family: “For Meera, Donnie, Nastassia and Kai, with lots of love from Jo (also known as JK Rowling)”.

One of the first supplied to Rowling by the publisher, Bloomsbury, the inscription was dated just a month and one day after the book was published on 26 June 1997.