Letterloves

Stanley Gibbons is the go to in the world of stamp collecting. I remember visiting WHSmith when I was little and buying bags of mixed worldwide stamps and putting them all in an album only in later years to take them all out again, hoover them up by accident or on one occasion have them blow away down the Manchester Ship Canal on route to doing a car boot sale.  The advert says that if I write a letter to them I can receive a booklet called Enjoy Stamp Collecting, a packet of assorted stamps and a badge. We all know that the badge is the most important part of this so we shall send and wait.

I visited The National Library of Wales as part of a mini trip whilst I was at library school last month. It is very grand and posh outside and also contains a large hill to walk up. I found that Aberystwyth was one massive hill but that is for another time.  A bit about the library from their website; 'Though there was talk of a national library for Wales in the 18th century, it was only in 1873 that a serious campaign started. A committee was set up to collect Welsh material and house it at the University College in Aberystwyth. Leading Welsh people and Members of Parliament worked hard to establish a National Library and a National Museum. In 1905 the government promised money in its Budget, and the Privy Council appointed a committee to decide on the location of the two institutions. Aberystwyth was selected as the location of the Library partly because a collection was already available in the College. Sir John Williams, physician and book collector, had also sai

Frank Sidebottom , I loved him as a kid and his Bontempi tunes always ending with 'You know it is, it really is'. On a trip into Manchester last week I managed to catch Bobbins  which shows the archive of Frank Sidebottom and Chris Sievey.  There is lots to see and also this week the new documentary Being Frank-the Chris Sievey story comes out, which you can read about HERE . The exhibition runs until the 30th April at Manchester Central Library. Have a cup of tea in the cafe over the way and have a look for amoeba Frank. I am sure he is there, he really is.