I’m not a philatelist (stamp collector, but how cool is that word?) though I did once buy the royal mail Dracula and Frankenstein stamps to decorate my diary. I was about 9 at the time, and stamp prices weren’t quite as ridiculous as they are now. It was a short lived obsession, and while I do appreciate a nice stamp, stamps are not a major obsession for me.
However, I think I might be forced to rethink this after a colleague in work showed me these amazing book related stamps on The Royal Mail website.
Fantasy Stamps- Magical Realms
Nostalgic Stamps- Winnie-the-Pooh
I don’t know if I mentioned that I’ve decided it might be time for me to go back to old fashioned correspondace, but I have started sending a lot of letters to my friends living elsewhere, because who doesn’t love a proper letter? I think I might have to buy these.
The Book and Biscuit 
I like stamps and have a collection of U.S. going back to the 1930’s. Philately may soon be antique because of the information age, and so also the art of letter writing. As one from an older generation I can tell you that I see a disturbing trend. The SPEED of e-mail encourages cavalier treatment of written expression. Spelling, grammar, vocabulary and syntax have all suffered, based on just my own anecdotal experience. When paper was precious and mail slow, people were encouraged to invest much more care in their messages.
This appears to me to be a natural but undesirable evolution in human behavior and it is driven by technology. I have a blog post on the subject. You might be interested – I can tell you are one of the literati, Siobhan. Here’s the link:
http://jwheeler59.wordpress.com/2011/03/31/creatures-of-the-information/
I love the Winnie the Pooh stamps! 🙂
Awsome post, Im now one of your feed followers