Well, who would have thought it – one hundred and twenty months since my first idea and here we are, still going strong.

Ten years ago, just before the London Stamp Exhibition 2000 at Earls Court, I came up with the idea of having a cartoon character to accompany the new Royal Mail Smilers® sheets that were to be issued at the show.

As many of you may already know, Jack Edward Oliver, my cousin, originally designed and drew the illustrations that would appear on the covers. The first cover produced was purely for my own collection and was never made available to other collectors. This featured stamps from the first smilers sheets, and the associated labels carried a photograph of yours truly – not a pretty sight!

Jack died on 26 May 2007, after a brave battle with cancer. Richard Duszczak then took up the pen and on 4 September 2007, for the Birds stamp issue, I illustrated my first cover. From then on I drew and coloured the Phil Stamp covers up until the Country Definitives 50th Anniversary issue. On 29 September 2008, Hunt Emerson then became our resident cartoonist and has been doing a fantastic job ever since.

Steve Oliver