Blue Mauritius: The Hunt for the World's Most Valuable Stamps

Description

Mauritius is famous for its dodo but there is another near-extinct export that has its own fabulous story - the world's most sought after postage stamps. "Post Office Mauritius" is an adventure that begins at a fancy dress ball on a tropical Indian Ocean island, and unfolds through discoveries of the stamps in Bordeaux, Mauritius, India and Britain. It is the fascinating story of the birth of philately: the first collectors were women, but schoolboys and kings were also collectors. Today, the men who hunt the legendary Blue Mauritius are no petty paper-chasers; they take their vocation as seriously as if they were big game hunters from Empire days. And there is still a chance that, at any moment, more treasure may be discovered...

HELEN MORGAN was trained as an art historian and archivist. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her Mauritian husband, Mike. This is her first book.