2011 Book Sale

The sale is always scheduled around Christian Aid's annual week of fundraising.

This year's Christian Aid Sale of books, pictures and collectables ran from Saturday 14 May until Friday 20 May, with late night opening on Thursday 19 May.

So far it has raised £119,000 - thanks to everyone who helped and everyone who came!

On 19 June Kathy Galloway of Christian Aid Scotland will be present at the 11am service to receive a cheque for the money we have raised.

The church was open for donations of books and other items from Monday 2nd - Wednesday 11th May (except Sunday) and we received a phenomenal response to our appeal for books and pictures, as did our friends at the Holy Corner Booksale.

2011 Patron: Liz Lochhead

As the big day approached both The Scotsman and Edinburgh Evening News ran stories on the sale - click on their links above to read them.

On Thursday 12 May our patron Liz Lochhead, Scotland’s Makar, visited the church along with other famous Scots poets.

Plus, noted artist and author Alasdair Gray donated a picture to the sale: “Julie 1985”.

Art and pictures are an especially strong presence in this the 38th year of the Sale.

Featured Item: William Harvey, The Circulation of The Blood (1649)

The definitive work on the circulation of the blood, its author was one of the fathers of modern scientific medicine. A court physician to both James I and Charles I, Harvey refined his knowledge of anatomy from the wounds that he saw and treated during the Civil War; Parliamentarians later ransacked Harvey's rooms, destroying his medical notes and papers. This rare and special volume has survived to this day and will now be sold at this year's sale for the benefit of people across the world.

Details of all these items can be found on our press release which is available to download.

Downloads

2011 Press Release

2011 Christian Aid Sale Flyer

2011 Sale Appeal Leaflet

(all are in PDF format and require Adobe Reader which you can download for free)

Books etc can also be donated throughout the year by arrangement (please email or telephone us for further details):

For information on donating or any aspect of the sale please email us at:

booksale@standrewsandstgeorges.org.uk

pictures@standrewsandstgeorges.org.uk

Contact telephone numbers :

07906 388355 (Book Sale)

07714 186754 (Mary Davidson)

07879 828 728 (Pictures)

0131 225 3847 (Church Office)

2010 Book Sale in review

The patron of our 2010 Sale was Dame Elizabeth Blackadder RA - at the close of this year's sale we raised the fantastic sum of £106,000. Thanks to everyone who came and everyone who helped!

“Hide and Seek with Angels” the report of the 2010 sale has now been published and is available either from the Church on George Street or to download here.

Feel free to still download the 2010 sale catalogue of books and pictures inlcuding those from our patron Elizabeth Blackadder and Lynn McGregor RSW - although many items have now sold do please contact us about the availability of anything of interest.

2010 Downloads

2010 Book Sale Press release

2010 Christian Aid Sale Catalogue

2010 Christian Aid Sale Report

(all are in PDF format and require Adobe Reader which you can download for free at http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/reader/)

Much More Than A Booksale

Since inception in 1974, the sale has raised more than £1.8m for Christian Aid. Christian Aid (Scottish charity number  SC 039150) is an agency of churches in the UK and Ireland. It works wherever the need is greatest irrespectiveof religion or race. You can find out more about Christian Aid by following the link on the bottom right of this page.

Alexander McCall Smith, Jamie Byng, Richard Demarco, Ian Rankin, John Bellany and Brian McMaster have been patrons of our Book Sale in recent years. Our patron in 2008 was the writer A.L.Kennedy, in 2009 the writer and essayist Andrew O'Hagan and in 2010 the artist Dame Elizabeth Blackadder.

For all of you who like to plan in advance, you'll find the following dates extremely useful:

How you can help

We can never take success for granted, for it depends entirely on goodwill and generous donations of goods, time and expertise from many quarters. Benefactors and donors send books and goods throughout the year.

Volunteers bring many skills – sorting books, shifting boxes, finding first editions, researching rare volumes, pricing pictures, helping to collect books and goods. And customers return year after year to browse and to buy, even those whose shelves are still groaning with last year’s purchases….

“It is really quite staggering to think that over £1m has been raised, but … in many ways the most significant achievement is the almost tangible sense of generosity of spirit” (a volunteer)