{"id":101151,"date":"2025-08-27T15:59:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T15:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/101151\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T15:59:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T15:59:13","slug":"man-holds-record-thanks-to-guinness-world-record-book-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/101151\/","title":{"rendered":"Man holds record thanks to Guinness World Record book collection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fiona Lamdin<\/p>\n<p>BBC News, West of England<\/p>\n<p>Clara Bullock<\/p>\n<p>BBC News, Somerset<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1756186087_344_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/51beb250-8336-11f0-8c45-3b53ba1643fb.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"BBC A man is standing in a room with bookshelves around him filled with Guinness World Record books. He is wearing a blue T-shirt with the Guinness World Record logo on it. He is holding up two certificates.\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>BBC<\/p>\n<p>Martyn Tovey has the biggest collection of Guinness World Record books<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">A man who holds two Guinness World Records thanks to his love of the award&#8217;s annuals said he never thought he would make it into the book himself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Martyn Tovey, from Radstock in Somerset, got his first Guinness World Record book as a school prize in 1968, aged 11. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">His mum went on to get him a new edition every year for Christmas and he now has 816 annuals and 3,089 pieces of memorabilia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">His collection has secured him two records in the 70th anniversary edition for 2025 &#8211; for the largest collection of Guinness World Record memorabilia and the largest collection of its annuals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Mr Tovey beat his own records, having set the originals in 2014 when he had 2,164 items of memorabilia and 358 annuals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;If, as an 11-year-old, I would have been told I&#8217;d be in the book I wouldn&#8217;t have believed you,&#8221; Mr Tovey said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">He said he was &#8220;fascinated&#8221; by facts and figures, particularly involving athletes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;My favourite record of all time was in 1968 at the Olympics, when Bob Beamon broke the long jump record,&#8221; he said. &#8220;For him to beat it not just by half an inch [1.2cm] but by almost two feet [60cm] was absolutely incredible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1756186087_344_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/f34fc6d0-8341-11f0-aa76-e16ed8c5f2c4.png.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"A man is holding a green Guinness World Record book into a camera next to a book shelf filled with more Guinness World Record books.\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Mr Tovey has more than 800 Guinness World Record books<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Mr Tovey said the books are not just for show, and he enjoys reading them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">He added: &#8220;The records in the book nowadays are different from the original facts and figures. There&#8217;s more records about people achieving things, that makes the book more interesting.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Mr Tovey added that his family does not share his passion for the annuals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;I think my wife tolerates it,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;She&#8217;s happy I&#8217;m happy so as long as we&#8217;re both happy, everything is good.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fiona Lamdin BBC News, West of England Clara Bullock BBC News, Somerset BBC Martyn Tovey has the biggest&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[353,49,48,75],"class_list":["post-101151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-books","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}