Susan and the red telephone box - a children's book waiting to happen?

On this day in 2009 Susan joined the fight to save the phone box on the Green after it came under threat for the second time. 

The traditional red phone box was planned to be replaced by a newer model in 1990. Fortunately, Shula took on British Telecom and launched a campaign to keep it. To Shula the 9ft tall box was more than just a communication device, even though her happy memories were entirely to do with the call facilities the phone box offered. Spurred on by the time she’d phoned her mum to announce she’d won the cross country at school and the many swoon-filled minutes she’d spent chatting to her old boyfriend Steve Cartwright, she was successful in keeping the old phone box.

Years later in 2009 the phone box had come into disrepair. The phone box now belongs to the Parish Council and to keep it working would cost £500. At the parish meeting Lynda argued that it should become an artwork - Ambridge’s own Angel of the North. Lilian’s suggestion was to transform it into a tourist information booth, advertising local events. Her idea won the vote, but they needed someone to maintain it... enter Susan.

From behind the counter of the Village Shop flew Susan’s cutting remarks, “mobile phones are great, aren’t they... but they’ve really led to a decline in phone boxes. Like ours.” No customer was safe from a lecture regarding the future of the phone box. Things intensified when she took her position as phone box-come-information booth monitor far too seriously. She saw herself as the gatekeeper of the poster size, poster content and most importantly who was deemed worthy of advertising their event in the sacred booth. It wasn’t long though before complaints were made about her over-zealous policing of the newly erected Information booth… oh dear Susan.