A BOOK by an elderly lady from Bournemouth is going down a storm on the nation’s airwaves.

“Goodbye Mr Bigelow” – a collection of letters written by former secretary Frances Woodsford to American widower Paul Bigelow between 1949 and 1961 – is being broadcast every day this week on Radio Four’s Book of the Week programme between 9.45-10am.

Miss Woodsford relieved her “dreary life” working at Bournemouth Baths in the 1950s by writing to a wealthy American widower.

Now, 50 years later, the letter-writer’s thoughts and observations on post-war Britain have been edited by a cousin and published by a branch of Random House.

“I’m getting used to being famous,” laughed Frances. “I must admit, I’m enjoying it!”

Frances, now 95, was a secretary at the baths by the pier, on the site of today’s Imax, and began writing to the elderly father of a penfriend to relieve his loneliness.

The letters made life more interesting for Commodore Paul Bigelow, but for Frances, writing them helped to break up the monotony of ration books and the spectre of nuclear war.

“I was in a job I disliked, I was terribly poor and I could pour out all these feelings,” said Frances.

Her tales about friction with a boss and an unwelcome suitor make it a piece of social history with the personal touch.

She writes of buying presents at Beales and getting the bus through “la-de-dah” places like Canford Cliffs.

One begins: “Short of arsenic, what can be done about my brother?”

Her own friends have now died and she finds herself in a position not unlike that of Mr Bigelow.

But when Frances’ smile beams out and her hands fly up and down, you can see the dapper pensioner from Northbourne is still a natural storyteller.

Despite her eye for details and writing skills, the Echo turned her down for a reporting job in the early 1930s because the editor said it did not take on women.

Miss Woodsford will be signing her book at Gullivers Bookshop on Wimborne High Street tomorrow (WED 28) at 11am.