IT was a telephone call that Jamie Cole will be dining out on for years.

At 4pm one afternoon he answered the phone at Coles Bookstore, in Bicester and immediately recognised the caller’s voice.

But it wasn’t a friend or relative – it was the distinctive Scottish tones of legendary actor Sean Connery.

He had called the shop, in Crown Walk, to thank staff for helping with the sales of his book Being a Scot.

Shop manager Mr Cole, pictured right with assistants Lucy Daniels and Cherry Ingram, said: “He was lovely and chatty and the moment I got off the phone I thought ‘did that happen?’”

Nigel French, joint owner of the shop, had written to the actor thanking him for supplying signed books for the shop and telling him they had sold 500 copies.

Mr Cole said: “It was so nice of him to phone from his home in the Bahamas.”

Mr Cole said the former James Bond actor asked him about the shop and reminisced about appearing at the Oxford Playhouse.

He added: “He could not have been more down to earth, but he was a lovely guy.

“It was a lovely moment for me personally and for the shop. I was the lucky one who answered the phone.”