Real stories · The bag that never misses a call

I stopped missing the grandchildren's calls the week I retired my big handbag

A bag where the phone answers from where it sits — that's the whole invention here, and it has ended my longest-running failure. I'm 67, and my phone's favourite trick was ringing from the bottom of my big handbag: under the gloves, under the reading glasses, under everything — and by the time I'd excavated it, my granddaughter's little face had given up and gone.

'You never answer, Granny.' I did try. The bag didn't.

Then I found the Corvessa from a British label called York Boutique — a neat little crossbody bag with a clear touch-screen window: the phone sits behind it, screen facing out, and the screen works straight through the panel. Mine is the black; there are eight colours.

The window is the whole point. The phone lives visible at my front — which is why a call now gets answered on the second ring with one tap, mid-street, gloves half on — while the compartments behind it took my cards, keys and glasses and quietly made the big handbag redundant. Light, hands-free, and worn crossbody so it stays exactly where I put it.

The phone sits behind a clear window that its screen works through — which is why the second ring is now mine, and the big handbag has been retired to the wardrobe.

It was £24.95, half the usual £50 — rather less than the big bag it retired, which mostly worked as a burial site. A fortnight to send it back and free delivery, checked once and forgotten.

It has since done three weeks of errands and every one of Winnie's walks — lead in one hand, call answered with the other — and on Sunday the video call found me FIRST ring, to visible astonishment on the other end. 'Granny answered!' she announced to the whole room. I'm dining out on it.

If your phone also rings from the bottom of a bag, do have a look. The Corvessa is rated 4.6 out of 5 by more than 210 women, it comes in eight colours — and at half price, with the gift season coming, the black goes first.