AN anonymous donor has given a valuable first edition of George Orwell’s Animal Farm to an Oxfam bookshop.

Dick Jennens, manager of the Oxfam shop in The Cornmarket, Thame, is hoping the valuable donation will be the perfect way for the store to celebrate its 10th anniversary on Thursday, December 2.

The hardback of Orwell’s classic allegorical novel about dictatorship, published in 1945, was donated to the specialist bookshop earlier this month and Mr Jennens said: “During our first 10 years we have raised about £1m for Oxfam.

“First editions of Animal Farm can fetch a lot, but this copy has one or two minor blemishes so we are valuing it at £995.

“Book collectors in Thame will have the opportunity to buy it first, and if no customers take it, the book will be sold on the Internet or at auction.

“I have no doubt that it will sell. We are keeping it in our safe until it goes on sale on Friday.”

Mr Jennens said the book, published by Secker and Warburg, was one of the five most valuable donations the shop has received in the past decade.

He added that the most valuable was a signed first edition of Daphne du Maurier’s novel Rebecca, which sold at auction for £1,800.