Hi Steve,

Thought you might be interested in seeing the following:

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/stamps

Everyone here frets about the British postal service but sometimes they do come up with some exciting things.

Best,

Tise

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Hi Tise

I’d heard about these. They’re long stamps with four covers for each of the books used, one apparently the first British hardcover, the second an early Pan paperback, the third I’m not sure about, but the fourth ones are taken from the most recent set of trade paperbacks. Quite unusual, to say the least and, I’d be willing to wager, quite a money-maker for the postal service.

On the Yahoo FictionMags group, Phil Stephensen-Payne wonders if this is the first time that book or magazine covers have been featured on a series of stamps. Good question.

I used to collect stamps, so I’m tempted to purchase a set, but I long ago decided I’d better stick to one hobby, and collecting books it’s been ever since.

Steve

[UPDATE.] 01-09-08. Thanks, and a tip of the cap to Gordon Van Gelder, also from the FictionMags group:

[UPDATE] 01-10-08. From Jamie Sturgeon:

Steve,

The Royal Mail issued on July 17 last year a set of Harry Potter stamps featuring all the covers of the books. On the James Bond issue, the 3rd set of covers you could not identify were, according to the Royal Mail website, designed by Barnett Plotkin (and were on p/bs published in the US by Jove in the 1980s).

Jamie