Unique signed Harry Potter first edition set to fetch a whopping £90,000 at auction

Bidders are expected to flock to London next week as rare JK Rowling first edition comes under the hammer at auction.

A UNIQUE first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone could become one of the most expensive ever when it goes under the hammer in London next week.The book, which is expected to fetch £70,000-90,000 at Bonhams next Wednesday, is signed by Edinburgh-based author JK Rowling to Bryony Evens, the office manager whose intervention helped launch the boy wizard's success.Rowling, who was then an unknown author, sent three chapters to the literary agent Christopher Little in 1996, but it was his office manager Evans who rescued it up from the pile of unsolicited manuscripts and instantly became hooked.Evens persuaded Little to request the whole book - and the rest is history.Rowling met Evens for the first time in 1998, when Evens queued to have her own copy signed during an event at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, and introduced herself.The author leapt up to give Evens a hug of gratitude, and signed the book to "To Bryony - who is the most important person I have ever met in a signing queue & the first person to see merit in Harry Potter. With huge thanks. J K Rowling." She underlined the word "huge" four times.Luke Batterham, Bonhams' Fine Books and Manuscript Specialist, said: "This is a truly unique copy of a highly desirable rare first edition of the book that introduced millions of adoring fans to JK Rowling’s wizarding world."Bryony’s story is world famous - she even appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show - and her copy really is a little piece of Harry Potter history. You can sense Rowling’s gratitude, in this inscription, to the person who saved Harry Potter from the rejection pile."The 1997 children's classic was the first of Rowling’s boy wizard novels and was written largely in cafes in Edinburgh.It was rejected by a dozen publishers before a sample of the book fell into Evens' hands.Thanks to her intervention, the book was sold to Bloomsbury for £2500 in 1996, and the following year was published in an edition of 500 hardback copies.It went on to become the most successful book, and franchise, in publishing history.Rowling has claimed the book, which scooped most children’s literature awards in the UK, changed her life "forever".Evens is selling her unique copy at Bonhams Fine Books, Atlases, Manuscripts & Photographs sale in Knightsbridge, London.Priced £10.99 on the back cover, first edition copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone can now fetch thousands of pounds at auction.The rare earliest copies name the author as "Joanne Rowling" instead of J.K. as in later versions. They also feature the misspelt "Philospher's" on the back cover, which was later corrected.The world record price for a first edition was set in December 2018 when a signed copy made £127,565 at Christie's in New York.In November 2019, another signed copy fetched £117,000 at Hindman Auctions in Chicago.In March 2019, a copy that belonged to Rowling's literary agent Christopher Little - and came with a sticker with Rowling's signature - fetched £68,812 at Bonhams in London.