Royal Mail is celebrating The Romantic Poets with a set of 10 stamps issued on April 7, the 250th anniversary of the birth of William Wordsworth.
Romanticism is the name given to the cultural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, taking comfort in nature during a time of political and industrial revolution.
The Romantic poets cherished lakes and mountains, birdsong and flowers, rainbows and starry skies, as beautiful constants in times of stress and change.
Royal Mail’s third special stamp issue of 2020, on sale from March 17, celebrates the hugely successful James Bond films, based on the fictional British spy originally created by the novellist Ian Fleming.
Comprising six counter-sheet stamps and a four-stamp miniature sheet, it is being released two weeks before the latest Bond movie, No Time To Die, arrives in UK cinemas on April2.
This film franchise is claimed to be the longest-running of all time, spanning almost 60 years since Dr No was made in 1962.
A set of eight stamps issued by Royal Mail on February 11, entitled Visions of the Universe, celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Royal Astronomical Society.
It illustrates astronomical features and phenomena discovered and investigated by British astronomers and astrophysicists over the years, using dramatic and intensely colourful original artwork rather than photographs.
Founded in 1820 as the Astronomical Society of London, and based at Burlington House on Piccadilly, the RAS encourages and promotes the study of the universe and closely related branches of science.
Royal Mail’s first special stamp issue of 2020, to be issued on January 21, is devoted to Video Games.
A set of eight counter-sheet stamps look back nostalgically on the best-loved games devised in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s, when the industry was in its infancy and some British games were landmark creations.
An accompanying four-stamp miniature sheet focuses on the action-adventure game Tomb Raider, originally devised by British company Core Design in 1996 and later developed by American outfit Crystal Dynamics, illustrating its evolution across the years.
Royal Mail has produced a third stamp issue in five years devoted to the Star Wars film franchise.
Issued on November 26, in advance of the the cinema release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker on December 20, it is claimed to be the final set in a series clearly intended to milk aficionados of the films.
The latest instalment comprises 10 gummed sheet stamps featuring 10 more characters (including three new ones being introduced in the latest film) and a self-adhesive miniature sheet of six featuring starships and other forms of transport imagined in the series.
Royal Mail’s Christmas stamps, released on November 5, take a religious approach this year, featuring classy biblical scenes created by paper-cut artists Hari & Deepti.
With clever use of light and shade, and depth of colour, they bring the Christmas story to life in intricate detail, with the Star of Bethlehem as a constant thread.
As in recent years there are eight self-adhesive stamps, including standard and Large versions of the 2nd class and 1st class values.
A Royal Mail stamp issue on October 10 marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of The Gruffalo, the popular children’s picture book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler.
Initially published in 1999 as a 32-page hardback, aimed at readers aged three to seven, the story was only about 700 words long and written in rhyming couplets.
With later paperback and board book editions, it became an international best-seller.
Royal Mail will issue a set of eight stamps paying tribute to Royal Navy Ships on September 19.
As an island nation, Britain’s prowess in shipbuilding and navigation has been crucial in its history, and the Royal Navy was key to forging the British Empire and to keeping enemies at bay, from the Spanish Armada to the Nazis.
The oldest of the armed forces (and therefore known as the ‘senior service’), Royal Navy has its roots in the English Navy of Tudor times and was formally established in 1546.
Royal Mail issued a set of eight stamps and a miniature sheet on September 3 to celebrate one of Britain’s best-loved and most successful musicians, Elton John.
The honour comes on the 50th anniversary of the 72-year-old singer-songwriter’s first album, during what is said to be his final tour (a three-year extravaganza featuring more than 300 concerts), and six weeks before the publication of his autobiography,Me.
A global superstar, known for his outlandish stage outfits, Elton John is one of the biggest-selling recording artists of all time.
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