The earliest known letter written by John Lennon is expected to fetch more than £30,000 at auction next month.

The 11-year-old Lennon put pen to a fold-out note card shortly after Christmas 1951 to thank his Aunt Harriet for the presents she gave him including a book about famous ships.

Lennon regularly wrote to his family and friends throughout his Beatles career but the thank you message – with a few grammatical errors – to his mother Julia’s younger sister is understood to be his first letter.

He wrote: “Dear Harrie Thankyou for the book that you sent to me for Christmas and for the towel with my name on it, And I think it is the best towel I’ve ever seen.

“The book that you sent to me is a very interesting one. I am at the bottom of page 18 at the moment. The story is famous Ships; it’s all about a man called Captain Kidd the pirate. I am on the second chapter, the first chapter is called the Victory and the second is called the Mary Celeste.

“Thank you for the red jumper that you sent to me.

“I hope you have a happy new year. Love from John x”

The letter, which was formerly the property of his cousin David Birch – Harriet’s son – is to be sold by TracksAuction.com

Online bidding begins at 4pm (GMT) on March 24 at www.TracksAuctions.com concluding with a live online auction on the website starting at 3pm (GMT) on April 3.

Moreover, the auction contains around 300 lots of Beatles and music memorabilia including the address book from Liverpool’s Cavern Club where the group played many gigs, and a collection of records that were previously owned by the singer.