A charity shop worker was left stunned after someone donated an old book containing handwritten notes from her own father 50 years after his death.

Gil Oakley, 74, was tidying the bookshelves at the shop where she volunteers when she stumbled across a copy of 'Stanley Gibbons Postage Stamp Catalogue' dated 1956.

She had two similar ones at home as her father, Kenneth Gleave, had worked for the company when she was a child. But w hen she opened the book's cover she was stunned to find his distinctive handwriting neatly penned on the first page.

Also in the book was a sticker from another philately company, Richard Roberts of Rutherfield, Sussex, where Mr Gleave also worked.

Not only had half a century gone by since her father passed away in 1968, but the book had followed Gil 200 miles from her home county of Kent, to Church Stretton, Shrops., where she now lives.