Paul McCartney's school book sold for £46k after bidding war

The exercise book includes a doodle on the back cover of a man smoking

One of Sir Paul McCartney's school books has sold at auction for £46,800 after a bidding war by two fans.

It was snapped up for nearly 10 times its estimate by a UK telephone bidder at an auction of Beatles memorabilia in Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside.

Sir Paul, 76, used it for his English Literature lessons at Liverpool Institute High School for Boys.

A pair of John Lennon's glasses went for £9,600, but a cassette of George Harrison songs went unsold.

Sir Paul's school book was owned by a family, based in Liverpool, who said they have had it "for as long as they can remember".

It contained 22 pages of essays by the Beatle when he was a teenager including pieces about Thomas Hardy's novel The Return of the Native and John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost.

The book also featured a doodle of a man smoking, and critical comments by his teacher Alan "Dusty" Durband. But the Beatle got impressive grades for his work, B- to B++.

Karen Fairweather, Director of Omega Auctions, said: "The bidding went on for 15 minutes, the longest we've ever had.

"They were two people who really wanted it so drove up the price in £200 bids. There was a round of applause at the end."

John Lennon's gold-rimmed glasses were given to his friend in 1967

Lennon's gold-rimmed glasses were given to his designer friend Barry Finch in 1967 while the cassette featured previously unheard 1978 recordings by George Harrison.

The cassette is labelled 'The Hitler Tapes', a title which was described as "tongue in cheek" by the auctioneers. Song titles include 'Spoken Intro George Legs Harry' and 'Brazil 1,2 & 3'.

The auction also saw a Cavern Club brick being sold for £420 and an Abbey Road sign fetching £4,000, but a poster bought for £6 at a garage sale went unsold with an estimated price tag of £8-12,000.