A BOOK bought for 50 pence at Luccombe church fete 12 years ago is funding a trip to the Galapagos Islands for guest house landlady Kathy Bickerstaff.

For Kathy's copy of Charles Darwin's seminal work The Origin of the Species, published in 1859, turned out to be a first edition.

Her attention was drawn to its first edition status and its possible worth by one of her guests - and it eventually fetched £11,600 at auction.

Kathy, of Higher Allerford, said: "I was amazed. It stopped being a book I used because I was afraid of spilling tea on it."

She said had always wanted to visit the Galapagos Islands, off Ecuador, as that was where Darwin researched his theory on evolution by natural selection: "It has been a childhood dream of mine to go there - it's an important book," she said.

Darwin travelled to the Galapagos Islands, famed for its giant tortoises, aboard HMS Beagle and discovered a volcanic archipelago that had remained much as it was millions of years ago. Today it is a world heritage site, administered by the Ecuadorian Government.

Kathy's 14-day trip, accompanied by her partner, plumber Mike Prideaux, will cost about £5,000: "I would never have been able to pay for the trip without the book," she said.

Darwin's theory - that plants and animals, including man, have their origin in other pre-existing types - was criticised by Christians in its day and Darwin himself was upset by the controversy he caused.

Nowadays, however, the Darwinian theory of evolution is at the centre of mainstream science.

Photo: Steve Guscott.