The Error World

Description

Like many boys of his era, Simon Garfield built a stamp collection the old-fashioned way: by steaming off the corners of envelopes. These days it is big business on the internet, far beyond the pocket of the ordinary collector. The Error Worldtells the funny, absurd and poignant story of an obsessive hobby and the colourful tales of the men who pursue it. But at the heart of the tale is the author's own quest to complete a collection of rare British stamps that have something dramatically wrong with them - missing heads, missing colours, missing numbers - as he wonders whether there is something missing in his own life to be so concerned with a desire his friends and family can't understand.

Simon Garfield is a feature writer on the Observer and the author of nine works of non-fiction, including Mauve, The End of Innocence, The Wrestling and Our Hidden Lives.

PRAISE FOR "MAUVE""Garfield has surpassed himself with his new subject matter: "Mauve" elegantly relates the tale of Victorian chemist William Perkin who, in 1856, failed to make quinine from coal tar but discovered instead how to synthesize the colour purple. Fascinating stuff."--"Esquire""This engaging and airy history shows how the development of mauve, the first mass-produced artificial dye, ignited a 19th-century revolution . . . Garfield has inspired me to wear a bit of mauve this spring to honour this inventive man."--"The New York Times"