Amid today’s deluge of emails and text messages, this charming play is an absolute delight.

A volume of letters written by Helene Hanff, between 1949 and 1968, was adapted for the stage by James Roose-Evans, who directed the play’s premiere at Salisbury Playhouse in 1981 and now directs this refreshing revival.

Janie Dee plays Helene, a spirited New Yorker with a passion for literature and a fondness for all things English.

She opts to order books from an antiquarian bookshop in London, at 84 Charing Cross Road, rather than seeking a source in the USA.

An advertisement for Marks & Co in London sparks this initiative and an enduring correspondence ensues with a staid English bookseller, Frank Doel, played by Clive Francis.

Their shared joy in the written word fosters an increasingly warm transatlantic relationship, but (unlike today’s jet-setters) Helene always seems too busy or too short of money to make a personal visit to this country. Her eventual arrival in 1971 is a poignant finale to this engaging production.

The beautifully crafted set portrays Helene’s office in her New York apartment, and the London bookshop whose staff cope efficiently and cheerfully with her every request.

Alice Haig, Samuel Townsend, Lysette Anthony, Jemma Churchill and Ted Merwood complete the highly competent cast.

Helene’s wit and warmth, which extends to her sending gifts to lighten England’s post-war austerity, steadily impinge on Doel’s reserve, and impress his colleagues, who occasionally slip their own messages into the parcels.

Friendship develops; the bookshop staff send presents to Helene, who joins in celebrating the Queen’s Coronation by listening to the radio broadcast and even rising to sing the National Anthem before shedding tears that she is not in London for the event.

Authentic changes of costume and set as Helene moves to a new apartment are complemented by effective lighting and evocative incidental music that includes I Believe in Yesterday. Take a trip back in time to enjoy this very special relationship.