The books were devised, drawn and written by Roger Hargreaves, who was born in 1938 in Cleckheaton, Yorkshire. Hargreaves began his career with a Bradford advertising agency before moving to London, where he joined a similar company and rose to the position of creative director. In 1971, his eldest son, Adam, asked him what a “tickle” looked like! Hargreaves senior came up with a round, cheerful orange face on tiny legs, with long, rubbery arms designed to reach anybody's laughter zones and called him Mr. Tickle.

Over time Hargreaves developed other characters, including Mr Greedy, Happy, Nosey, etc, and eventually found a publisher. The publisher worked hard for the brand and the Mr. Men books sold a million copies in just three years. From here the brand continued to grow, and was eventually turned into a television series. As the Mr. Men characters began to appear on everything from lunchboxes to pyjamas, Hargreaves created a second group, this time with female characters. This was called the Little Miss series, and featured Little Miss Bossy, Little Miss Naughty and so on.

When Roger Hargreaves died at the young age of 53, Adam effectively joined the family firm, helping his mother to run the business. Something of an artist himself, albeit in a very different style from his father, he taught himself to draw the characters, even creating some new ones, such as Mr. Rude, Mr. Cool and Little Miss Scary.

The set of six stamps are in values of 34p, 40p, 48p, 51p 53p and 74p. Huge publicity has been arranged for the issue in the hope of attracting young children into the hobby of stamp collecting.

Mark Steele

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