THE PHONE – and tills – haven’t stopped ringing at The Petersfield Bookshop since Robert Sansom tweeted about the shop’s worst ever day of business last Tuesday.

These 14 bags, all filled with books destined for readers all around the world, were taken to the Post Office on Monday.

It was a similar story on Tuesday with Birmingham, Alabama, and Lebanon, Maine, being just two of the many destinations visible on the labels.

“We’ve had about 400 book orders online over the past week, and we had our best trading Saturday in living memory at the weekend,” said Mr Ransom.

“When you add it all up we’ve had three really exceptional trading days. I think our online sales have reached around £10,000.”

He added: “One of the best things about Saturday was that everyone was walking around with smiles on their faces, asking each other where they had come from.”

The incredible reversal of fortune experienced by The Petersfield Bookshop over the past week may have been written in the stars.

The night after “the tweet” the Chapel Street institution devoted an after-hours event to story tellers and fairy tales.

It was organised before Storm Brendan and the social media whirlwind, of course, but the script was written and the reaction blew the store’s celebrity owner away.

“I’m not a social media fan whatsoever and I’m not on Twitter, Facebook or anything like that, but what’s happened because of it has been unbelievable,” said John ‘Portsmouth Football Club’ Westwood.

“I think it just shows the love for bookshops that’s out there. This type of shop is what the country needs. You can have all your new technology but there’s nothing like picking up a book, smelling it, feeling it and getting into the story.

“Children need to be more involved with books so maybe what’s happened here will inspire them.”

“Robert has been running around like a headless chicken since,” added Westwood in regards to the response.

“We’ve just been blown away with what’s happened.”