The private library of bookshop owner Christina Foyle is to be auctioned later this year.

Auctioneer Christie's today confirmed the sale - which could fetch up to £10 million - will take place in the summer.

Details are being kept under wraps at present but a spokeswoman said it would be "a very exciting sale."

Miss Foyle, 88, who lived at Beeleigh Abbey near Maldon, ran the famous Foyle's bookstore in London. She died in June and left an estate worth £59 million.

It is believed the pound book collection will be sold to help her family generate cash for the charitable trust set up in her memory.

The first of the 7,000 leather-bound volumes is reported to have been removed from the abbey by book experts last week.

The collection, started by Miss Foyle's father, William, includes a first folio of Shakespeare's works and a signed letter from the Harwich MP and diarist Samuel Pepys.

Christie's said the sale would be entitled The Private Library of William Foyle.

Details of the sale and how much it was expected to raise would be released in the coming weeks.

Miss Foyle had no children and after leaving several bequests, the bulk of her estate was to go towards the setting up of a charitable trust in her name.

Miss Foyle died in her sleep while recovering from a chest infection. Her ashes were scattered in the grounds of the Abbey as were her husband's.

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