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A woman has described how she began reading aloud to deliberately irritate another passenger who had called her a “f****** b****” for opening her book on a crowded bus.

Bookseller Jennifer Cairns claimed the man, who has not been identified, became verbally aggressive as she tried to read her Barbara Comyns novel.

In an amusing viral tweet posted on Thursday, she said she apologised before explaining that she was struggling to stop reading because the story was so “wonderful”. She said she then read it aloud for two stops.

Ms Cairn said the furious man repeatedly said “stop that” but she ignored him and continued to read out loud before he eventually got off the bus.

Her social media post has been shared by thousands of people including BBC Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis and Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid.

Alongside a picture of the novel Our Spoons Came from Woolworths, Ms Cairns wrote: “A man just called me an f*****g b***h for reading my book on a crowded bus.

“I said ‘I'm so sorry but I love this book so much I just can't wait to continue reading it. It's very wonderful listen...’ And what did I do? I read out loud for two whole stops until he got off. Yes I did.”

In a separate post, she said the frustrated passenger claimed her elbows were taking up too much room, before he asked: “Are we on a bus or at a library?”

The book-lover’s tweet, which was shared more than 4,000 times, was met with praise from many who took to Twitter to share their similar experiences.

One commenter, Sue Swallow, wrote: “Happened to me recently. I was humiliated and cried, mostly through anger and frustration."

Phil Hodgson added: “What a fantastic response. And just look what you’ve started! I’ll be buying that book tomorrow. Might even recommend it to my book group but not before I’ve told them about you.”

Another commenter even went as far as to say: “They should build a statue of you for this response.”