Billy Bunter and the Blue Mauritius

The Auckland Philatelic Society website features an interesting article about Billy Bunter - a fictional character created by Charles Hamilton using the pen name Frank Richards.

According to the site, "After the Second World War Bunter appeared in novels, written for older children, but able to be enjoyed by older people still young at heart. Billy Bunter and the Blue Mauritius was first published in 1952. Bunter is basically an anti-hero, who is overweight, gluttinous, woefully short-sighted, lazy, cowardly and stupid. "

It goes on to say, "In Billy Bunter and the Blue Mauritius, Billy Bunter is returning to his boarding school from a picnic, and decides to take a short cut through some woods which are out of bounds. Bunter gets lost in the woods, stumbles around in the gathering gloom as night falls, and eventually falls asleep. He is woken up by the sound of a thief, who has apparently stolen a stamp, being pursued by the local landowner, Sir Hilton Popper, and his grounds staff. The thief stumbles into Bunter, resulting in the thief's capture, and enabling the stamp to be retrieved and returned to its owner."

The stolen stamp turns out to be 'The Blue Mauritius,' one of two stamps issued in Mauritius in September 1847 which have "acquired a legendary status, and sold for increasing and eventually astronomical prices."

Click here to read the entire article.