A man has secured a place in Guinness Book of Records for world's biggest collection of Guinness World Records annuals.
The 57-year-old Martyn Tovey, who built up a collection of 353 individual annuals from around the world and 2,164 items of memorabilia, started collecting them after he won the Guinness World Records as a school prize, the Mirror reported.
Tovey, whose mum has given him the latest annual for Christmas every year since 1971, said that he was a fan of athletics and Bob Beamon's jump was one of the most amazing things he had ever seen.
Tovey, who lives with wife Fran, his interest in the books was driven by a childhood obsession with facts and figures as the books gave him a fantastic reference guide, which was updated with the latest data every year.
Tovey continued that his favourite is the 1960 edition with handwritten corrections by Norris McWhirter, while the strangest is perhaps a 'Sportsman Set' consisting of a bottle of aftershave and a Guinness paperback book, adding that he find out about special editions from around the world and try and track them down.
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He further said that alongside the main annuals, he collects toys, games, spin-off publications, novelty items and promotional material.
Editor-in-chief Craig Glenday said that they been monitoring record-breaking collections for years by covering everything from airline boarding passes to zebras, but it wasn't until this year, when they met Tovey, that they realised they should open a category for the largest collection of Guinness World Records books.
Glenday added that such is Tovey's dedication to documenting their history that his incredible collection outstrips even the archive here at Guinness World Records.
