MARK Benjamin is on something of a heroic mission to give the literature of yesteryear a renewed life, often in far-flung climes.

When the former librarian retired five years ago, he took with him the knowledge that the elephant’s graveyard for books could in actual fact be a rich resource.

And he wasn’t wrong. His contracts with the councils of Northumberland, North Tyneside and Nottingham to glean what he could on their behalf from major library overhauls have proved as much an interesting exercise in human psychology as financial prudence. It is amazing what sells!

But more than anything, his work has been a sign of the times – a result of the IT revolution that has made most reference manuals out of date before they even reach the printing press.

“For the freshest information, people turn to the internet,” said Mark, “so libraries find they have a lot of quite expensive, but effectively dead stock.”

“They have always recycled books and while fiction has little value, select non-fiction titles are potentially worth a lot more – it has been a case of realising that potential.”

The past five years, trading online under the name of Bennor Books from the back of his house on Hexham’s Hencotes, have put him in contact with book-lovers all over the world.

He said: “Tynedale Hospice is another of my clients – any book they think might be worth something, they put it aside for me to look at.

“One of them was called Cross Stitch Banners and my initial thought was ‘what’s it doing in my box?’

“But I gave it a go and sold it to a lady in Shreveport, Louisiana, for £60.”

Mark originally specialised in history books about the North-East of England and the Scottish borders, but as his experience as a book trader has grown, he has extended his remit to basically anything that has a chance of achieving a decent price.

He has dispatched a five-volume set on Scottish mediaeval churches to one keen buyer in Poland (“I suppose there will be academics studying aspects of Polish history, I guess.”)

And he has sent copies of the 1948 road map of India and the 1946 Bradshaw’s Guide to the Railways of India ... back to India.

He was glad to see the back of one particular set, if only because his house could breathe again.

The 60 volumes of Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft covered the years from 1941 to the Millennium.

“There’s a section about each country and the earliest volume, the one for 1941, had a rather sad entry for Poland,” said Mark.

“It read ‘this country does not currently have an air force’.”

It had cost the library more than £100 a year to purchase each of the volumes, but they fetched, at best, £20 for the most sought-after years.

The bulk of them were bought by three different aeronautics enthusiasts in Austria and Germany.

Timing is all, as they say, and Mark had good reason to curse when, after handing a pile of unsold foreign books back to their owner, he received an enquiry from the Romanian Ministry of Culture.

It was intent on re-stocking the national library that had been all but destroyed by Caucescue.

Perhaps the request that has amused him most came from a young couple who approached him at a book fair.

“They had just bought an old house and wanted to create a library and they weren’t bothered what the books were,” he laughed.

“In many respects, that was the big houses of old, you know, the libraries that looked pristine because the books were untouched.”

That couple were the anomaly, however. The type of people he deals with are the diehards who love the feel of a book in their hands.

The railways, field sports and mining are perennially favourite subject matters, as is the Roman history of Northumberland.

“Some books you think ‘I should sell that easily’ and you still have it five years later, while others, you can’t imagine who would buy it, but it goes in an instant.

“It’s all about finding the right person for that particular book.”

The third annual Hexham Book Fair, which Mark organises in aid of Hexham Community Partnership, will take place at the Torch Centre on February 28 next year.