James MacKay Speaks...
Renowned philatelic author and journalist James MacKay has written 100 books and now brings his wide knowledge of everything philatelic to Sandafayre.com!

The Theme's the Thing
Traditionally philatelists collected stamps according to the country of issue, sub-divided into reigns or political periods. A straightforward collection of Grenada or St Vincent, for example, would progress naturally from the earliest issues of the Victorian period, through the Edwardian and Georgian keyplate designs to the pictorial definitives of the 1930s and beyond. Up to the 1960s such collections would have been well within bounds, but a glance at any stamp catalogue of the present day will reveal that both of these Caribbean islands have been unduly prolific, issuing hundreds of stamps and souvenir sheets every year...READ ARTICLE >>

The Olympics Are Here Again
Exactly 110 years ago the French sportsman, Baron Pierre de Coubertin circularised the sporting authorities of the world, advocating the revival of the Olympic Games which had been the chief sporting event in the ancient world.

A festival, both religious and athletic, was established at Olympia in the western Peloponnese in 776 BC, the date at which Greek chronology (which went in Olympiads or four-year periods) commenced. Athletes from the Greek city states met under sacred truce to compete in such events as the pentathlon (leaping, quoit-throwing, javelin throwing, running and wrestling). Eventually the Games embraced the Macedonian and Roman empires, and both Philip of Macedon and Nero competed. The Games were suppressed in AD 394 by the Emperor Theodosius the Great because their pagan overtones offended his Christian ethics....READ ARTICLE >>

No Limit
In the summer of 1935 a camera crew from Associated Talking Pictures arrived in Douglas, Isle of Man to shoot a comedy using the famous TT races as a backdrop. The star was Florence Desmond, then at the pinnacle of her career, but it was a hitherto little known Lancashire comic called George Formby who stole the show and became a hit. The film was entitled 'No Limit' and the story revolved around an amateur mechanic who builds a motorbike and then rides to victory in the race...READ ARTICLE >>

Jewelled Stamps
The latest issue from the Gulf state of Qatar is a set of six devoted to indigenous jewellery. Designed by local artist Khalid Fikri, the stamps have been printed by Walsall of England in a combination of multicolour photogravure and embossing in various metallic inks which gives the various pieces of jewellery a startling three-dimensional effect...READ ARTICLE >>

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