IT is one of the best-selling novels of all time. But a sharp-eyed bargain hunter has managed to turn a €8,000 profit on a copy of a book that is found in homes up and down the country.

The tourist spotted the first edition copy of ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Emily Bronte  at a flea market in Limerick and quickly snapped it up for just €3.Jason Ludlow then brought the book to his native South Africa where he was paid 77,000 rand for the copy — the equivalent of more than €8,000.

Ludlow is keenly interested in antiques and rare books, and couldn’t contain his excitement at what he found during this trip to Ireland.“I was in Ireland and Limerick in March and April, and was very lucky to have found such a great old book at the flea market,” he said.”It was a rare copy of Wuthering Heights printed in 1848 that I’ve subsequently sold for a substantial amount.”

The 34-year-old engineer, who is currently living in Angola, found the book at Limerick’s newly developed Milk Market earlier this year.Coincidentally, a photograph of Ludlow buying the book was snapped by a local photographer who had been taking pictures there on April 7.

Experts have expressed amazement that the rare American first edition turned up in Ireland.David Cunningham of antique book dealers Cathach Books said it may have been the only such copy in the country.”You just don’t know how books turn up and how it arrived in this country, but that’s the nature of books — you can find almost anything anywhere.”

Local efforts to track down the original seller of the book have been unsuccessful.