A COLLECTION of rare and antique books formed by a Blackburn-born university lecturer astounded experts when it fetched almost £2million at auction at Sotheby's yesterday.

The 912-lot auction had been expected to go for about £500,000, but collectors travelled from all over the world to pay up to 20 times estimates for some of the rare volumes Dr Mike Burrell spent 30 years collecting.

Dr Burrell, who died of cancer in February, was raised and educated in Blackburn before going on to study at universities in Scotland and London.

He then went on to become lecturer in Contemporary History of the Near and Middle East at the School of Oriental and African Studies within the University of London.

Among the books in his 8,000 strong collection was one of the first published works of the notorious spy and double agent Kim Philby, a 1918 report on a trip to Arabia, which sold for £13,800 - 20 times the expected price. Other highlights included the first comprehensive guide to the flowers of the East Indies, published in 1696, which sold for £40,000, and a first printed edition of a ninth century introduction to astronomy.

Dr Burrell formed his collection during regular trips to the Arab countries which once led to him being given a personal audience with the Shah of Iran.

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