XANTHE'S
STAMP MAGAZINE

I was looking at Norwegian stamps this morning because of the death of King Harald V, and I discovered their latest stamp. It was issued on 11th June and shows the Norwegian national football team. If you're not a football fan, you might have missed Norway's great run in the World Cup. They beat Iraq, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Brazil before losing to England in the quarter-finals. This was the best ever performance by a Norwegian team at the World Cup so understandably people

Norway's King, Harold V, died earlier today. Apart from being a king, he was a remarkable man. He represented Norway in three Olympic games (in sailing). As a former athlete he opened the 1994 Winter Olympics. He was an environmentalist and chair of WWF Norway for many years. He was definitely not a traditionalist and didn't have much time for conventions. His new approaches helped reshape the monarchy. So did his personal life. He fell in love with a commoner, Sonja Haralds

Instead of reviewing different countries' Christmas stamps individually, I thought it would be better to look at them together. I'm not going to give any lengthy reviews - I'll just make a few short comments and give a mark. Here are a few of my thoughts about the different new Christmas stamps from around the world. I've tried to cover as many of them as possible, but no doubt there will be a few countries I have missed. Great Britain I will start with our own Christmas stam

Norway released a new issue on 4th October. Most of my reviews are about stamps from Great Britain, the Isle of Man and the Channel...