![\"Nick](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/\/af8ecb2d-2cdf-4e29-a70d-aaae61249980.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOld postcards, the stub of a boarding pass and illegible annotations in the margins are routine fare when rifling through books in a second-hand shops. <\/p>\n
However, for shoppers at the Oxfam Bookshop in Hove, East Sussex, it\u2019s books belonging to one of the world\u2019s most famous rock stars that they are perusing.<\/p>\n
Nick Cave, who lived in Brighton for more than a decade with his wife Susie, donated more than 2,000 books \u2014 from Salman Rushdie to Ian McEwan, from a first edition of Johnny Cash\u2019s novel Man In White to a recipe book about aphrodisiacs. <\/p>\n
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Cave lived in Brighton for several years<\/p>\n
PATRICK RIVIERE\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n
The Australian singer-songwriter decided to donate the books after the collection appeared in a travelling art exhibition that included a recreation of his office, complete with his library. They went on sale on Thursday for the same prices as all the shop\u2019s stock of between \u00a32.99-\u00a34.99.<\/p>\n
Ian Falkingham from Oxfam, who helped arrange the donation, said the star\u2019s team had got in touch in early June to ask if they wanted the books, and the charity had jumped at the chance.<\/p>\n
\u201cApart from the fact he\u2019s an extremely famous person, it\u2019s very similar to what happens all over the country all the time,\u201d Falkingham said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to make space in your house for the next set of books, don\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n
On Friday morning, a crowd of people were leafing through pages, finding mementos from the singer\u2019s life spent travelling the world, from the boarding pass for seat 4A on a Lufthansa flight to Amsterdam in the name of Cave\/Nick Mr to a map of America setting out the dates of a 2007 tour, with Madison Square Gardens circled. Inside one is a crushed, empty packet of Camel cigarettes.<\/p>\n
A copy of the Christopher Hitchens book The Missionary Position, a controversial critique of Mother Teresa, contains a discoloured old envelope with the words \u201cLukes tooth\u201d written in Cave\u2019s distinctive handwriting. His son, Luke, is now 34.<\/p>\n
![\"Collage](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/\/4998b2d1-7ea7-4f30-8867-6d71d7640a58.jpg\")
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An old envelope with the name of one of Cave\u2019s was found in a Christopher Hitchens book<\/p>\n
Cave\u2019s publicist said the singer did not want to comment on the donation, explaining: \u201cHe thinks the discoveries will remain intriguing mysteries for those who find them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Falkingham said the collection, which spans philosophy, history and art as well as hundreds of fiction paperbacks, gave a \u201cunique\u201d insight into Cave\u2019s mind. Staff say a customer had spent \u00a3200 and left with several bags. By Saturday morning there was a long queue inside the Oxfam on Blatchington Road.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Nick Cave: My sons\u2019 deaths ended disgraceful self-indulgence<\/a><\/p>\n Lara Woods, 40, who lives nearby and works in advertising, bought five books including The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov and Midnight\u2019s Children by Salman Rushdie. She was sent by a friend who had seen a post about the sale on Reddit. \u201cHe\u2019s a massive Nick Cave fan and sent me a message saying: \u2018You\u2019ve got to go!\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Lara Woods with her haul<\/p>\n HUGO DANIEL\/THE SUNDAY TIMES<\/p>\n Liz Gogerly, who lives locally and works as a ghost writer, had already visited twice and bought a recipe book about aphrodisiacs with an inscription from \u201cNancy\u201d, which she speculated could have been Nancy Sinatra. Cave\u2019s early band the Boys Next Door, who became the Birthday Party, covered her song These Boots Are Made for Walkin\u2019.<\/p>\n She regretted not buying a Jungian psychology book that \u201cstank of fags\u201d and had pink handwriting in the back, which might have been the singer\u2019s. It had been sold by the time she returned the next day.<\/p>\n Gogerly said: \u201cMy friend bought a book about fashion in Paris and there was a note to [his wife] Susie in it, she was thrilled, it just said: \u2018Dear Susie, I think you\u2019ll love this book.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Many books have sentences underlined or passages marked with spidery, tiny black annotations in the margins. On the back inside cover of The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman, by Louis de Berni\u00e8res<\/a>, the black handwriting details copious page number references, including \u201cgood vs evil 221\u201d and \u201cbad advice 147\u201d.<\/p>\n A Christmas message inside one of the books from the filmmaker Peter Sempel<\/p>\n There are also several that were given as gifts. Inside a copy of The Trials of Persiles and Sigismunda by Miguel De Cervantes, Peter Sempel, the Australian filmmaker, has doodled a cyclops-type figure and written: \u201cFor my favourite blues singer Nicholas E.Cave Xmas \u201889 in my favourite f****n\u2019 town N.Y. Your old friend and fan Peter Sempel.\u201d On the next page are quotes from Albert Camus including: \u201cThe path of struggle leads me to the flesh.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Woman](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/\/97098b48-8ef2-42d4-bacd-6cddebce8a82.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Bookshelf](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/\/1b527525-c297-4860-8349-40d99b64bbe5.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Book](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/\/a4ceb39d-cba2-4ab2-be5b-34ad7aad3cbb.jpg\")
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