Battle over binned books

A leading academic is claiming around pounds 20,000 in damages after council refuse collectors threw 30 boxes of valuable books and papers into a dustcart.

The mix-up happened when Sir Frank Kermode, professor of English Literature at King's College, Cambridge, was moving house in the city. Sir Frank, 76, apparently mistook three Cambridge council workers - who had been asked to make a special waste collection - for removal men.