A BOOKSELLER is counting the cost of a flood which has left some of his rare books ruined.

Frank Bush, 62, fears he could have lost thousands of pounds worth of rare and limited edition stock after a flood ruined about 300 books at his Othello’s bookshop, in London Road, Leigh.

The shop was closed yesterday as Mr Bush came to terms with the damage and began the clean-up operation.

He said: “I have lost maybe 300 books. Some are first editions, so they are quite expensive – I had one or two which would fetch as much as £600.”

Mr Bush, a former Canvey firefighter who lives in Rayleigh, said he was “absolutely gutted” when he got a call on Tuesday night saying there has been a flood and water had got into his shop through the ceiling.

He retired from the fire service in 1996 and opened the shop in 1999 after dealing in books for many years.

He said: “I was stationed with one of the firefighters who came to the shop so they managed to get in touch with me.

“I didn’t know what to expect when I came in. It was pretty disappointing but it could have been worse and now it is the inconvenience of trying to replace as much as possible.”

Mr Bush said he has about 12,000 books and he initially thought about 10 per cent may have been lost.

He said: “Some of my books are very rare, but that is the nature of second-hand book shops.

“I will close for a few days to sort everything out, but I hope to open again early next week.”

A loss adjustor was due to visit yesterday afternoon to give an estimate of how much damage was caused.

Tony Watson, a firefighter with Leigh’s red watch, said: “There was a fault with the boiler in the kitchen in the flat above the shop. We got some plastic sheeting and used it to funnel a lot of water into buckets which helped minimise the damage, but there was still a lot of water damage to the kitchen floor and the book shop below.”

Firefighters were called at about 7pm on Tuesday and spent just over an hour helping out.