Sunday 15 May 2022 03:25 PM Lost library book returned to Ipswich 64 YEARS late after it was found 1,000 ... trends now
A long lost Suffolk library book has finally been returned more than 60 years late, after it somehow ended up in Croatia.
The hardback copy of The Loving Couple by Virginia Rowans was due back at the library on the Gainsborough estate in Ipswich by July 30, 1958.
The overdue borrower was left clocking up potential fines for more than half a century, at the rate of 2d a week or 43p a year in decimal currency.
The 1956 book was very popular, as stamps inside show that it was borrowed 14 times before it disappeared.
The humorous book was among several volumes in a bag which were recently left as an anonymous donation to a library in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Staff saw details inside the cover saying it belonged to the Gainsborough library and decided to post it more than 1,000 miles back to its rightful home.
A book (pictured) originally rented out from a library in Ipswich in 1958 recently ended up in a library in Dubrovnik, Croatia - who kindly returned the rather overdue book
The Loving Couple by Virginia Rowans was a popular choice back in 1958, having been borrowed from the library more than a dozen times in two years
Gainsborough Community Library staff were shocked to open the package containing the book and a letter explaining where it was found.
They are now wondering how the book found its way to Croatia.
The Loving Couple published in 1956 told of the disintegration of the marriage of a suburban New York couple.
It features His Story and Her Story, written from the perspectives of the husband and wife, with one reading from the front cover and the other from the back.
The book was borrowed when the Gainsborough estate library was in its old building which opened in 1936, and was replaced with a new £1.4million building on the same site in 2009.
Library and information adviser Kim Risby who is based
