Larry Hutchison has been visiting the Christian Aid Book Sale since it first began in the early 1970s, writes Julia Forsyth, one of the organisers of the event.
He first stumbled upon the sale almost by accident. He remembers Edinburgh back in the ’70s as a city full of second-hand bookshops. He has been a book trader and bibliophile all his working life, so would often come into the city seeking treasures in the form of books and ephemera.
He noticed a few tables with books outside St Andrew’s & St. George's Church (as it was then known) and wandered in for a look. He can’t remember what he purchased that year but he kept in touch and returned the following year, and the year after that … and now in 2026 he says he has never missed a sale. The event has grown, of course, and he gets there early – always hoping (and usually succeeding) to be first in the queue.
He makes a beeline for ‘the Specials’ – a table in the middle of the sanctuary specially curated throughout the sorting week with rare and valuable items, often with a story to tell or a connection to Scotland or Edinburgh's literary past.
Larry has an eye for things many of us might miss. I asked him about some of the items he has purchased that have stayed in his mind – and he told me about several!
One year he found a ‘very nice’ edition of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Child’s Garden of Verses. The book, he told me, had been dedicated by Stevenson to his nurse, Alison (‘Cummy’) Cunningham. Cummy had nursed R.L.S. through many childhood illnesses. Here was a presentation copy of the book in the sale with a special inscription to her. It had been gifted by Cunnigham to a couple whom Larry could not identify. Even so, an inscription from the very person behind the dedication made it a remarkable find.
Another year, he came across two volumes of Uncle Tom's Cabin. In 1853, there had been a banquet held at the Assembly Rooms for Harriett Beecher Stowe, and she had gifted the books to a Leith merchant. Here they were, inscribed with her name and a quote from the book.
[Banquet in Honour of Mrs Stowe, in the Music-Hall, Edinburgh. Illustration for the Illustrated London News, 30 April 1853.]
And there are ephemera, too. Larry remembers a black-rimmed envelope containing a handwritten invitation from Robert Burns’ son, Robert Burns jnr, to the funeral of his mother, Jean Armour.
And on another occasion, he found a ticket to hear Charles Dickens give a reading in George St in 1869.
These are the discoveries that keep him coming back.
Larry is part of the wider world of books, someone who knows their value, their rarity and their place in a much bigger ecosystem. But what stands out is not the transaction – it’s the curiosity and the passion for finding these rare treasures and the interest in the stories each piece has to tell.
Not every discovery is rare and not every find is valuable. But many of the books at the sale carry a sense of connections to readers and to history and to the life of the city itself.
Larry chuckled as he remembered finding a Fettes School prefects' register. It covered the years 1874–1937 and listed the prefects along with the punishments they had handed out to boys who had been late for class, forgotten their sports kit, or been caught frequenting out-of-bounds New Town establishments!
Our conversation turned to the reason behind the sale – the incredible work of Christian Aid. Larry explained that, whilst he holds no religious beliefs whatsoever, he feels strongly aligned with Christian Aid’s values.
‘I yield to nobody in terms of my support for the principles underpinning the charity’s efforts’, he told me.
‘It is those shared principles, dignity, equality and justice that sit at the heart of the sale.’
Larry also recognises the sense of community the event gathers. ‘This sale brings so many people together – volunteering their time, donating books to sell. It speaks well of mankind.
‘That’s why I keep coming back. It matters.’
You’ll be sure to find Larry at the front of the queue on 9 May.
The doors are open for donations from 9am to 8pm, Monday 27 April–2 May, Monday 4 May–Thursday 7 May.
The Christian Aid Book Sale runs at the New Town Church (13 George Street) from 10am to 4pm on Saturday 9 May; then from 12 noon to 6pm, Monday 11 May–Friday 15 May.
