News

Book Sale Raises £130,000

Tuesday August 11 2015

This year’s Christian Aid Week sale at St Andrew’s and St George’s West Church, Edinburgh, brought in over £130,000.

The annual sale, which has now been running for over 40 years, completely takes over the city-centre church during Christian Aid Week each May. It is the largest such event for Christian Aid in Scotland, raising over £1 million in the last decade alone.

Nearly £80,000 of this year’s total was raised from books, with the rest in sales of music, pictures, antiques, toys and games, plus nearly £5000 in baking and over £20,000 in donations.

In June, a cheque for £105,000 was handed to Kathy Galloway, head of Christian Aid Scotland, during a service at the church. Making the presentation, Jeanne Bell, Emeritus Professor of Neuropathology at the Western General Hospital, who had convened the medical books at the sale, said: “If you weren’t among the people who took part in the sale, it’s hard to imagine this tranquil and beautiful space utterly transformed by a vast tide of books that spills out on to George Street, and it happens every year.”

This year, an additional sale of pictures, Scottish books and ephemera is to be held in the church from October 29-31. This will be a chance to buy signed first editions of works from many leading Scottish writers.