South Shields author could strike gold with second-hand book

Former investment banker Malcolm Craig, 81, has proved he has the Midas touch with his 1991 publication, How to Invest in Gold - one of 16 tomes to his name.

Originally available for £7 new, a copy is now being offered for the glittering price of £1,824.99 on sales site Amazon - with other used versions selling for hundreds of pounds.

It is one of four books the finance expert, who worked as a Gazette reporter in the 1950s, has published about gold in all its forms.

Its 144 pages offered insights to investors, would-be investors and brokers and traders about the global bullion gold market.

Mr Craig, a married dad-of-three and grandfather, now lives in Hampstead, London, and believes it is the highest price for a used paperback ever on Amazon.

He said: “The book tells people how to avoid getting ripped off, because plenty of people do when it comes to gold. It originally sold for just £7. I made my money on it from royalties.

“This is an extraordinary amount of money for a single used paperback book, as far as I know it’s a record price.”

Mr Craig, whose family lived in the Oxford Street and Grosvenor Road areas of South Shields, added: “Globally, gold is very big business, but no-one had ever written about it before it before I did.

“Although I went into banking, I knew from five years old that I was to be a writer, I was always writing even when doing other things.

“When I got to the age of 76, I thought that I’d just about retired but I’ve another two books on the go.”

Mr Craig, a former Mortimer high school pupil, worked for the Gazette between 1953 and 1955 but returned to academic studies and moved to London.

After two years of national service with the RAF, and living for a time on the continent, he began working as a merchant baker.

But at the age of 34, he decided to give it up to pursue his first love of writing, winning freelance commissions and publishing his own finance newsletter.

His expertise led to a surprise trans-Atlantic phone call from the boxer Muhammad Ali who was seeking advice on penny shares. and the Queen also once sent him a cheque, which he has kept, as payment for his newsletter.

Mr Craig’s three other books about gold include 1982’s Making Money from Gold, and Buying Gold Coins for Profit and Protection, published in 2002.