Amy Winehouse's personal collection of books go under the hammer

Amy Winehouse’s personal collection of books go under the hammer at auction with a value of £80,000

Amy Winehouse’s personal library of books have gone up for auction on Catawiki.

The late singer – who died in 2011 at the age of 27 – was an avid reader and owned a collection of 230 books, which are up for sale on the European marketplace until Sunday.

The collection has been carefully selected ‘to maintain the context and integrity of each volume’.

It includes books that date back to her days at school with stamps from the different schools she attended.

There are also personal notes included from her teenage years, such as an inscription from Amy’s ‘first serious boyfriend’, the reported inspiration for her song Stronger Than Me.

For sale: Amy Winehouse’s personal library of books have gone up for auction on Catawiki

Experts estimate this priceless collection at between €80,000 to €90,000.

Mark Harrison, book expert at Catawiki says: ‘We’re thrilled to have the Amy Winehouse library up for auction on Catawiki. 

‘This personal library manifests much more than Amy’s treasured love for books and literature, but many fragments of her daily life that not many got to witness. 

‘Many of the books exhibit signs of her love, carrying in them coffee and tea stains, lipstick marks, unfinished song letters, doodles and extensive personal notes. 

‘Her library reflects the way she was as a person: fierce and passionate.’

It comes as a biopic based on the singer’s life is currently filming, called Back To Black and starring Marisa Abela as Amy.

Amy’s father Mitch Winehouse defended the controversial casting choice for the biopic – after many claimed Marisa and Amy don’t look enough alike.

Dad Mitch disagrees with the backlash as he shared this week that Marisa is a ‘great choice’, admitting it doesn’t matter if they ‘don’t look exactly alike’.

Chatting with TMZ on the new release about his daughter, Mitch said: ‘Marisa is Marisa and Amy is Amy… so it’s no big deal if they aren’t mirror images. Marisa is a great choice for the role.’

He continued that Eddie Marsan, who is playing Mitch, doesn’t look exactly like him either, noting: ‘there’s too much emphasis on looks.

‘Because there’s plenty of Hollywood examples of actors not looking like their real-life character.’

But while the casting has her parents’ seal of approval, Amy’s friends are not so convinced either.

One told The Mail on Sunday that they are unhappy at the casting of Marisa because, despite the near perfect wig she wears and the identical tattoos, they do not think she looks like the Rehab singer.

They also contrast Roedean-educated Abela’s social background with London-born Winehouse, who was known for her streetwise persona.

‘Nobody consulted us about Amy,’ said the friend.

‘How can it be authentic and accurate if they don’t know the real Amy or the truth about what happened in her final years? We are against this and we are upset. Amy was absolutely striking.’

Friends of Amy are also furious with the makers of the biopic for failing to consult them about the star’s life, claiming that executives working on Back To Black have not been in touch to ask about their memories of the late singer, raising fears that the film will be inaccurate. 

Auction: The late singer – who died in 2011 at the age of 27 – was an avid reader and owned a collection of 230 books, which are up for sale on the European marketplace until Sunday

Despite it being almost 12 years since Amy was found unresponsive at her townhouse in Camden, north London, in July 2011, her grief-stricken friends still believe it is early for such a film to be made.

Sources on the set of Back To Black – directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and named after Ms Winehouse’s hit 2006 album – say that filming is only due to last 10 weeks.

One insider said: ‘It all feels very fast, almost a bit smash and grab.’

Many have also doubted the film being made as a whole, accusing the project of ‘exploiting the singer’s legacy’ and ‘capitalising off her trauma’, with some calling for people to ‘just let her rest’.

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