Winnie-the-Pooh Books Donated to 150 Red Phone Box Libraries for Centenary

Key facts

• Free books are being provided for 150 red phone box libraries to celebrate 100 years of Winnie-the-Pooh and the K2 red phone box.
• Publisher Farshore is donating copies of A.A. Milne's classics and a new authorised sequel, A Little Boy and His Bear.
• Actor Sally Phillips launched the campaign at a phone box library in Chartham, Kent, by reading to schoolchildren.
• The public can nominate local red phone box libraries; libraries in Derbyshire, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire and the West Midlands have already joined.
• The initiative follows the government's National Year of Reading 2026, with reading enjoyment rising after four years of decline according to the National Literary Trust.
• Dr Nicole Holt, who runs the Chartham phone box library, said the libraries are free and accessible to everybody.
• At the launch, Jane Riordan led a storytelling workshop and Andrew Grey led an illustration session.
• Winnie-the-Pooh was first published in 1926, illustrated by Ernest Howard Shepard, and based on Christopher Robin Milne's stuffed toys.