After Colin spent four years working on the Discworld stamps one has to that there may be some carry-over into his own stamps; this is, beyond the skills and knowledge acquired and the sense of humour injected into the designs. The obvious one is, after being a fan of the Discworld books and having Terry Pratchett personally approve the Discworld stamp designs, the special triptych miniature sheet commemorating the author’s knighthood in 2009.

A recurring image used in stamps designs has been that of the Penny Black. This was remodeled in the original Discworld stamp issue as the Penny Patrician. Amongst the non-philatelically minded collectors this stamp is as iconic as its big sister. The same concept reemerged as the Sombero Laernu hat festival stamps, only to be followed by the Guild of Engravers Penny Blank stamp. It then turned full circle and got a splash of red, white and blue when reworked as the Penny Jacks

One of the urban myths concerning the Discworld stamps is the original $5 stamp was that world’s equivalent of the Cape of Good Hope triangulars. In actual fact the original brief was that it had to be blue, triangular in shape and feature pineapples. Colin and Alan came up with the Brass Bridge design, which in no way resembles the real world stamps. Both stamps are blue, but completely different blues. Perhaps in order to point this out to collectors, Colin produced the triangular Laernu dragon stamps, one of which is blue .... and triangular ..... and bears quite a closer resemblance to the Cape stamps. You can decide for yourselves

A recurring character in the Discworld books is the anthropomorphic representation with a sickle, otherwise known as DEATH. He hasn’t actually appeared on a Discworld stamp as yet, but I get the impression that Colin and Alan would have relished such a commission. His first cousin gets a look in on several of their stamp issues

Readers of the Discworld books will know that cabbages are the favoured crop of the farmers of the Sto Plains. In fact the air in the city of Ankh-Morpork is redolent of cabbages when a widdershins wind blows. Therefore cabbages have figured more than a few times on the Batley & Edwards stamps. This icon reappeared with the 2007 Cabbage Hearts St Valentines stamps from the Isle of Vue; an island, incidentally, not known for its cabbage crops.

So just who is St Hilary. Well its not a difficult question is it? It doesn’t take a lighthouse beam to shine a light on the answer. On the stamps she is dropping what appears to be a $5 Blue Triangle into a little brown envelope, the favoured means of distributing the Discworld stamps to collectors. A certain Hilary worked at the Discworld Emporium didn’t she.

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