The Error World [Paperback]

'The Nick Hornby of collecting.'

'A remarkable memoir.'

'Read this book (I recommend you do) and you'll never lick a stamp the same way again.'

'A first-class love affair - witty and poignant.'

A funny, revealing memoir about the flawed nature of the universe - by way of mid-life male obsession, pricey bits of paper and love.

'A fascinating and original memoir of how a hobby swallowed up a marriage and a life.'

'A quirky memoir about how the instinct to collect can swell into an obsession.'

When he was very young, Simon Garfield lusted after rare stamps but could not afford them. When he was older, the passion reignited with almost ruinous results. The Error World is an examination of obsession and desire, and the search for fulfilment. But it is also a story of wooden legs, pornography in the Finchley Road, Pelé's World Cup shirt, the man who guards stamps for the Queen, and a woman who is terrified of the Post Office Tower.

Simon Garfield was born in 1960. He is the author of Expensive Habits: The Dark Side of the Industry, The End of Innocence: Britain in the Time of AIDS, which was awarded the Somerset Maugham Prize, The Wrestling, The Nation's Favourite: The True Adventures of Radio 1, Mauve, The Last Journey of William Huskisson, The Error World and the Mass Observation trilogy Our Hidden Lives, Private Battles and We Are At War. Mini: the True and Secret History of the Making of a Motor Car was published in 2009.