A History Of Britain In Thirty Six Postage Stamps

Explores the history of England through 36 of its fascinating, often beautiful, and sometimes eccentric postage stamps, emphasizing how stamps have always mirrored the events, attitudes, and styles of their time.

DISCOVER THE INCREDIBLE STORY OF AMERICA THROUGH ITS BEAUTIFUL AND DIVERSE POSTAGE STAMPS IN THIS EXUBERANT AND ALWAYS CHARMING HISTORY. In A History of America in Thirty-six Postage Stamps, Chris West explores America's own rich philatelic history. From George Washington's dour gaze to the charging buffalo of the western frontier and Lindbergh's soaring biplane, American stamps are a vivid window into our country's extraordinary and distinctive past. With the always accessible and spirited West as your guide, discover the remarkable breadth of America's short history through a fresh lens. On their own, stamps can be curiosities, even artistic marvels; in this book, stamps become a window into the larger sweep of history.

This playful history uses 36 of our most expressive, quirky, beautiful and sometimes baffling stamps to tell us the story of Britain, through Dickens and the potato famine to Thatcher and the punk movement.

Picador Presents the Fall's Best New Voices This fall, immerse yourself in these free, select excerpts from this spellbinding list of fiction and nonfiction titles, brought to you by Picador. Discover the books at the front lines of modern fiction and nonfiction by some of our country's finest authors, and be the first to unearth the next generation with our smart, imaginative debuts. In this sampler, enjoy excerpts from Edward St. Aubyn, Keith Donohue, Euny Hong, Richard House, Fred Venturini, and many more!

This delightfully playful history uses 36 of our most expressive, quriky, beautiful and sometimes baffling stamps to tell us the story of Britain, through Dickens and the potato famine to Thatcher and punk. Stamps tell a story. Since the Penny Black first burst on the scene in 1840, they have made and mirrored history as it happens - from the 'Britsh Empire Exhibition' of 1924 to the Austerity Olympics of 1948, from the Coronation to the death of Diana, from the advent of computers to the new Millennium. Chris West is a stamp-obsessive. He has picked his favourites to tell a hugely entertaining and idiosyncratic history. Each lovingly-designed stamp is a vintage specimen and a tantalising window onto an era.

Matthew Hill examines Great Britain's postage stamps.

In September 1847 coloured squares of paper were stuck to envelopes and used to send out admission cards to a fancy-dress ball on the tropical island of Mauritius. No-one at the party would have guessed that the envelopes bearing these stamps would one day be worth more than a million dollars. When a two pence 'Blue Mauritius' surfaced on the fledgling French stamp-collecting market in 1865 it gained instant celebrity. Then in 1903, when a perfect specimen, discovered in a childhood album, was bought at auction by the Prince of Wales, the Blue Mauritius gained super-star status. Even now, the stamps of 'Post Office Mauritius' remain synonymous with fame, wealth and mystery. Helen Morgan tells the fascinating story of the most coveted scraps of paper in existence, from Mauritius' Port Louis to Bordeaux, India and Great Britain, Switzerland and Japan, into the fantasies and imagination of stamp collectors everywhere.