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'Hold
The Line Please' traces the history of the telephone service in the Midlands
from 1879 when Birmingham's first exchange was opened on the corner of
New Street and Stephenson Street.
The author (an ex-GPO operator herself) follows the rapid expansion of
the telephone service through the first half of the twentieth century
to WWII when operators in Birmingham, some as young as 17, heroically
kept the service going night and day through the blitz with steel helmets
and gas masks at the ready.
Later chapters deal with training, equipment and the many characters amongst
the one thousand operators employed by the GPO at Newhall Street. |
