Martyn Tovey has more Guinness World Records books to his name than even our Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday.
Our biggest superfan, from Radstock, UK, has been collecting our fact-filled annuals since the 1960s, and the numbers are rather impressive.
His love for all things record-breaking has turned him into a record holder himself – and of course, seen him featured in our books.
This Sunday (27 August) will mark 68 years since our very first book was published in 1955, so to celebrate, we’re blowing our own trumpet… and Martyn’s.
Martyn holds two records:
- He was awarded the title for largest collection of Guinness World Records memorabilia in 2014 with 2,164 items, but says he now has 3,064 to his name.
- He also has the largest collection of Guinness World Records annuals with 353, awarded in 2015, although he say that number has also grown since then – to 811.
Martyn, who is retired and volunteers in a charity shop, says he’s always been interested in “unusual facts”.
His love for GWR began when he won a copy of our book in a contest at school.
“The next year, my Mum asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I asked for the latest book,” he said. “From then on, I received a copy of the book from my parents for Christmas every year. And so it began...”
Martyn has a copy of every UK annual ever printed as well as foreign language editions from around the world and spin-off editions that have been printed over the years covering topics like gaming.
He said: “Most of these are quite straightforward to find, but finding ones with good dust-jackets or copies with compliments slips, printing errors or other unusual features is the best part of the collecting challenge.”
And while many of the books were purchased for the cover price as it stood at the time, Martyn has shelled out a bit more for rarer editions and international shipping costs.
The most prized piece of his collection is a personal copy that belonged to the book’s original editor Norris McWhirter, who held the job alongside his twin brother Ross.
The book is marked as Norris’s “Home – File Copy” and has annotations scribed on the pages.
Of course, I'm quite fond of the edition in which I appear.
Martyn’s collection takes up quite a lot of space, so most of his books are kept in storage, although he keeps a full set of the UK editions handy, as well as some of the specials.
He said: “I've always been interested in unusual facts and records, so I eagerly await the latest book every year. Having achieved my initial aim of owning all of the UK editions, I started to collect editions from other countries and then my interest in other GWR memorabilia picked up.
“I'm amazed just how many items of Guinness World Records memorabilia have been produced over the years (and continue being produced/licensed). I have many favourite items - the range of items that has been produced over the years is so vast that picking a single item is pretty much impossible.”
To find out more about Martyn’s collection, you can visit his website here.
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Still not had enough? Follow the link here to buy our latest book, filled to the brim with stories about our amazing record breakers.
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