This was the first 'rare' book that I ever found. It was shortly after I started collecting Ladybird Books, about 7 years ago. I always checked out my local charity shops and, in those days, usually found an old LB or two in each shop. This time my husband and I divided forces and he came back with this book. It cost a lot of money - £3.99 and I really wasn't sure that it was a good purchase at the time. But it was!

I don't really remember Jonathan's Shopping Day from childhood. It was never published in large numbers and publication had ceased before I was born. So this book really signified a rite of passage. I bought it because it was a lovely, collectable old Ladybird book - not because I had fond memories of it. I was now A Collector.

This, of course, raises another issue.

If you find a book worth £100 but priced at £1 in a charity bookshop, should you:

a) snap it up and feel smug
b) buy it for £1 but put extra in the tin
c) let the shop know its true worth?

I have so far been spared this decision, since this is the only charity shop where I've found a very rare book and at the time I didn't know its true worth. But I suspect I would be somewhere between a) and b). I've spent a fortune on books in charity shops over the years.