Winnie-the-Pooh books to fill 150 red phone box libraries

Free books are being made available for 150 red phone box libraries to celebrate 100 years of Winnie-the-Pooh and the K2 red phone box, the BBC reported. Farshore, the story's original publisher, said it would donate copies of AA Milne's classics alongside a new authorised sequel, A Little Boy and His Bear.

Sally Phillips, actor and narrator of the newly reissued Winnie-the-Pooh audiobooks, launched the campaign by reading to schoolchildren at a phone box library in Chartham, Kent. "He has always been the number one bear in our house," she told the BBC. Phillips said the books were "great to read as an adult because they're really funny, much funnier than you remember", and that reading them to children reminds you "how much kid-friendly drama there is in them".

People across the UK have been invited to nominate their local red phone box libraries for the books, to help the campaign's organisers "uncover more hidden gems". Nominations have been opened to phone boxes which have already been adapted into community libraries. Libraries in Derbyshire, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire and the West Midlands have already signed up, according to the BBC.

Dr Nicole Holt, who runs the phone box library in Chartham, told the BBC: "They are really good for accessibility, they're free and are available to absolutely everybody." Holt, a principal lecturer in public health at Canterbury Christ Church University, said she hoped the initiative promoted and encouraged other people to set up phone box libraries.

At the launch, children took part in a storytelling workshop with Jane Riordan, the author of the new sequel, and had an illustration session with Andrew Grey, its illustrator, who taught them about the original's unique style. Riordan said being asked to write the follow-up to Milne's tale was the privilege of her career. "The wonderful thing about Winnie-the-Pooh is that it's a book for someone to read to you," she said.

The initiative follows the launch of the government's National Year of Reading 2026, with reading enjoyment rising this year after four years in decline, according to an annual survey from the National Literary Trust. Milne's story was first published in 1926, illustrated by Ernest Howard Shepard, and followed the tales of Christopher Robin and his friends, including Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore. It was based on actual stuffed toys of the author's son, Christopher Robin Milne, and its setting was inspired by Ashdown Forest in East Sussex.