Tooting library waives 48-year fine after book returned from Canada

A library that received an overdue book in the post from Canada 48 years after lending it out has agreed to waive the overdue fine of £6,170.85.

Tony Spence, of Port Moody, British Columbia, borrowed A Confederate General from Big Sur from Tooting Library, south London, in early 1974.

Luckily the library, which has no record of the loan, caps fees at £8.50.

"I decided to return it as I am a great believer in, and supporter of, libraries," the retired judge said.

"And also thought staff might get a chuckle," the 72-year-old added. "It seems they did."

Wandsworth Libraries said it was "surprised and delighted to have the book returned to us".

A spokesperson added: "We were then even more surprised to find the book had been borrowed in 1974 and was overdue by approximately 48 years and 107 days."

Port Moody, near Vancouver, is more than 4,600 miles (7,500km) away from Tooting.

Librarians are unable to confirm if A Confederate General from Big Sur is the library's most overdue book, as the date of Mr Spence's loan predates the computer system.

The library had no record of the book having been taken out until it arrived in the post anonymously and without a note on Monday.

Mr Spence, who grew up in Bingley, Yorkshire, told the BBC: "I found the book recently in a box of magazines that we carted around and stored away without looking in.

"How it got there I do not know as I do not see why I would have kept it."

When asked why he did he not include a note with the envelope, he replied: "I was going to put a note in and I completely forgot.

"When I went to mail it, I realised I hadn't put the note in but by then I couldn't be bothered so I just sent it."

Richard Brautigan's 1964 novel "gave voice to the hippie generation", the Washington Post reported upon his 1984 death aged 49.

But the book only sold 743 copies, a 1985 Rolling Stone article, since put online, says. Brautigan's friend and fellow writer Don Carpenter said it "died like a cockroach underfoot".

There were more than two million sales of his next novel, Trout Fishing in America, which "made him a literary hero of the 1960s counterculture", the Washington Post report said.

One of Brautigan's poems, All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace, was the title for a 2011 BBC documentary series by Adam Curtis.

Wandsworth Library Service first posted about the returned book on Monday, asking "how did it get there?" before the BBC tracked down the sender via a Facebook group.

The library's overdue fines are 25p per day for the first four weeks and 35p per day thereafter.

A spokesperson added: "We're pleased to have the book back in a condition good enough to return to the shelves, if we wanted, and under the circumstances we're waiving the fines."

They added they hoped the borrower had "enjoyed it", and urged them "to get in contact so we can thank them personally."

It is not the first overdue library book returned to the UK from Canada. Last year, Bullies Don't Hurt by Anthony Masters was returned to Salisbury Library 18 years late.

Does Mr Spence have a message for the library itself?

"I just want to apologise for taking this amount of time to return it," he said, before adding: "and I hope the people who are on the hold list waiting for it to come in are not too angry at me."

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