2016 seems to be a year of commemorations and celebrations what with the centenary of The Great War and Shakespeare’s 400th birthday anniversary and it also happens to be the centenary of Agatha Christie writing her very first detective story – The Mysterious Affair at Styles. To mark the occasion, the Royal Mail have issued a set of six stamps representing her most famous novels. These include the aforementioned The Mystery Affair at Styles, Murder on the Orient Express and A Murder is Announced.
Interestingly, each stamp depicts one of Agatha Christie’s complex plots in a single frame. And to make things even more interesting there are hidden clues in the stamps which can only be revealed by exposure to UV light or heat and naturally, the use of a magnifying glass!
These innovative stamps include clues such as:
A Murder is Announced – the word Switzerland hidden in microtext, numbers of a clock, the invitation to the murder. All these items were crucial to the story
Murder on the Orient Express – a half-hidden figure holding a knife, the names of the suspects and Hercule Poirot himself.
In addition, on each of the six stamps there is a hidden letter which when collated together spell out the word AGATHA.
These stamps are a must for lovers of murder mysteries, Agatha Christie and just the plain unusual!