Michael Powell's A Waiting Game and Ronald A Lee's The Knibb Family – Clockmakers were received by the Oxfam Bookshop in the High Street earlier this month and are thought to be worth £2,000.

When A Waiting Game was first published in 1975 by Michael Joseph, it retailed at just £3.25- but it is now valued at a staggering £1,500. The hardback is signed by Mr Powell, who is famous for working alongside Emeric Pressburger on some of the classic movies of the 1940s and 1950s, such as 49th Parallel, Black Narcissus and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. According to the cover, the novel is about 'hunting animals and hunting men'.

Ian Mulcock, the shop's manager, said: "I have no idea where this came from, it was just in a box with other things and I noticed it had been signed. I have looked on the internet and the £1,500 is the average of the figures I have seen quoted for it. It would be the most valuable book we have ever sold in the Aylesbury branch, I think the most we have taken before was around £500."

The other book, The Knibb Family – Clockmakers, is one of only 1,000 of its kind privately published in 1964. It details the history of the Knibbs, who were based in Newport Pagnell and were prominent horologists dating from the 17th century. Unfortunately its value has been reduced due to the dust jacket being missing, although it is still being sold for £500.

Mr Mulcock was again unsure of the origin of the book as it came through the book-bank system which covers a radius of 25 miles around Aylesbury.

"Obviously the most important thing is our day-to-day fiction but these kind of valuable books do put the jam on the bread and it's nice to have something a bit unusual," he added.

Have you found something of value you would like to tell us about?

To comment on this or any other Bucks Herald story, click here.

To post comments directly on this website, click on the Comment on this Story link below