Fans of children's author Roald Dahl can enjoy their favourite characters and stories in the form of postage stamps! The Royal Mail has released a set of stamps celebrating the author's work and featuring the original illustrations by Quentin Blake. A spokesman at for the Royal Mail has announced that the Dahl stamps will be followed by a set of Dickens stamps later this year, no doubt to mark the bicentenary of his birth.
The 30 year anniversary of Dahl's The BFG (or Big Friendly Giant) is marked by a special sheet of four stamps, celebrating one of Dahl's best loved characters. Incidentally, I always thought that Blake's drawing of the BFG had a look of Prince Charles about him. Perhaps this is why he looks so at home next to the Queen.
Roald Dahl's daughter Ophelia speaks of her excitement about the initiative:
"My dad wrote thousands of letters home throughout his life and never dreamed that one day one of his own characters would grace a stamp. He'd be thrilled. This is an excellent way for us to kick off a year of celebrations to mark 30 years in print for The BFG and it's great that the stamps include a collector's set, devoted to The BFG and other characters from this book."
Always loved Quentin Blake's style and the illustrations seem so suited to stamps. If all stamps were as good as these, I'd send a lot more letters. Although probably of complaint to RTE, so I wouldn't enjoy writing them that much.
ReplyDeleteYep, it's wonderful stuff. I know when I was younger I always appreciated that Roald Dahl used the same illustrator for all of his books, unlike other authors who felt the need to rebrand frequently. I think consistency is a big deal when you're small.
ReplyDeleteI like too that the pictures have this hurried or unfinished look to them, which is probably an appropriate metaphor for childhood..
Oooh, I love them! I wish I had someone to send me mail from the UK.
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