From the author of Mauve, an obsessively readablememoir that brings the mania for stamp collecting to lifeFrom the Penny Red to the Blue Mauritius, generations ofcollectors have been drawn to the mystique of rare stamps.Once a widespread pastime of schoolboys, philately hasincreasingly become the province of older men obsessed withthe shrewd investment, the once-in-a-lifetime find, the oneelusive beauty that will complete a collection and satisfy anunquenchable thirst.As a boy, Simon Garfield collected errorsa??rare pigmentmisprints that create ghostly absences in certain stamps.When this passion reignited in his mid-forties, it consumedhim. In the span of a couple of years he amassed a collectionof errors worth upwards of forty thousand pounds, pursuingnot only this secret passion, but a romantic one as his marriagedisintegrated.In this unique memoir, Simon Garfield twines the storyof his philatelic obsession with an honest and engrossingexploration of the rarities and absences that...