A RARE book signed by the famous Leigh author of "Goodbye, Mr Chips" will go under the hammer later this month at an auction in New York.
The classic 1933 novel Lost Horizon, by James Hilton, is expected to fetch up to £2,200 when it is auctioned by Christie's at the Rockefeller Plaza on June 29.
The copy of book was given to someone called H.B. Smith by the author and signed H.B. Smith, sincerely James Hilton.
The novel, later turned into a Hollywood film, is about an imaginary paradise in Tibet called Shangri-La.
The copy is part of a collection to be sold by millionaire businessman and lawyer Donald Drapkin.
John Hammond, secretary of the James Hilton Society, said: "It is rare to find that any signed copy of Hiltons book has come up for sale."
Hilton was born in Wilkinson Street, Leigh, and wrote 22 novels that also included Random Harvest.
He died in 1954 in hospital in California, aged 54.
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