Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Going, going Gollum..£31k for 1st edition
A FIRST edition of The Hobbit found in a chest of drawers sparked a bidding war to sell for £31,200.
The book by JRR Tolkien was one of 1,500 published on September 21, 1937.
It contains black and white illustrations by the author and was handed down by a relative to the Berkshire owner.
She had no idea of its value or rarity. But its guide price of £7,000 to £10,000 more than tripled at Kinghams Auctioneers in Moreton-in-marsh, Glos.
The book features a manual correction on the rear inner flap of the dust cover for “Dodgeson”. It refers to Charles Dodgson, aka Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll.
A Kinghams spokesman said: “The book was found by one of our valuers.”
A FLIGHT attendant who broke her leg in seven places in turbulence has won a payout but admits: “It doesn’t bring back what I’ve lost.”
Eden Garrity, 31, can no longer do the job she loved after her right ankle snapped during a hailstorm.
She was pushing a catering trolley on the
Thomas Cook flight from Cuba to Manchester when the plane shot up 500ft.
Doctors said the impact of the aircraft floor was “like a sledgehammer”. She broke her fibula in five places, her tibia once, fractured her foot and cracked her ankle bone.
She needed surgery to insert screws and metal plates as well as an external brace. She could not walk for two months and needed intense rehab.
Nerve damage now makes it painful for her to stand up for long periods so she can never again work as cabin crew.
Her ordeal emerged after Brit Geoff Kitchen, 73, died of a suspected heart attack and at least 71 other passengers were hurt last week when their plane hit turbulence from London to Singapore. Eden, of Leigh, Greater Manchester, pictured below in uniform in 2019, said: “To suffer injuries so severe I couldn’t return has been heartbreaking. “I suffered from depression and was diagnosed with PTSD and anxiety.” Eden, who worked for Thomas Cook from 2017 until its collapse in September 2019, said: “It has left me bitter.
“It was the best job in the world and I feel I’ve lost a piece of my personality.”
The aircraft had taken a 100-mile detour to avoid bad weather over the Atlantic in August 2019. The pilot asked the crew to be seated but the plane shot upwards before Eden could secure the cart. Thompsons Solicitors argued extra precautions should have been taken. While Thomas Cook’s insurers denied responsibility, Eden got an undisclosed compensation package worth six figures. Yesterday 12 passengers were injured in turbulence on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Dublin.