Parish councillors are pleading with residents of a Hampshire village to stop leaving erotic literature in their local book exchange.
At least six works of adult literature are believed to have been removed from a red telephone box in Hustbourne Tarrant, which was turned into a book exchange kiosk after the village lost its mobile library amid funding cuts in 2019.
The phone box is near to a primary school playground, meaning councillors are concerned that children could inadvertently pick up pornographic titles.
“We love our phone box library, but we don’t love salacious adult literature being left in there,” a council spokesman said.
“The majority of visitors to the box are children. Some of them are tall enough to reach the shelves where the books for grown-ups are. Please find another outlet for your collection.”
A local resident, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Telegraph that leaving erotic fiction in the phone box was “probably a prank”.
“I have heard that there are some salacious books... I’m number 20 in the queue,” she joked.
“It tends to be children that use it mostly. The problems occurred because some of the books have gone to lower shelves with the children’s books.
“It did make me smile but I can understand why some people would be annoyed.”
Parish council clerk Miriam Edwards said: “A lot of people aren’t finding this funny. We don’t want somebody acting like it’s ok to put porn in a public phone box.”
Councillor Kirsty North added: “This certainly wasn’t what I had in mind when the village bought the kiosk.”
One of the racy titles photographed in the phone box was Hot Blooded by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguié.
The 2012 novel follows a woman “struggling to resist her own animal urges” around a family of werewolves – and is “perfect for fans of Twilight”.
