I’ve been asked to do the postcard half of a display at Burnley library – to promote the Philatelic Society. We were advised to use photocopies, as anything of value was likely to get lifted within a week – a sign of the times I suppose. The question is – what cards are going to attract passers-by? There was a club consensus that local views would be best but, that still leaves a couple of hundred to choose from. Veteran collectors would be most impresses by disasters or animated street scenes but I can see problems with both. When I first started in postcards I was appalled by the gruesome images and captions giving the number of casualties on disaster cards until I recognised this was an important way of getting news out in the days before television. As for street scenes, the town centre was changed so much in the 1960’s that younger people might not even recognise them as Burnley. What we really need are some spectacular scenes of uplifting events – like the Burnley football team winning the cup – which they did, in 1914 (see below - cup arrowed). Well, that’s one decided; now for the other 23.

The controversy about Google Earth’s project – to put a photographic tour of British streets on the Internet and the objections about privacy got me thinking. For years people have been caught by the camera, committing crimes against fashion, in some very candid views of crowded beaches and town centres – I even spotted a boy ‘observing a call of nature’ – and yet nobody seems to have complained about these photos being put on public view – as postcards. It would be a great loss to the postcard world if these vibrant scenes had to be replaced by empty beaches and close ups of architectural features.

Another sign of the times, this year, is that whenever I buy something in one of the shops in the Arndale Centre, which are struggling with higher rents, the person on the till tries to tempt me with an unrelated special offer. At one shop I bought toothpaste and was offered a Mobile top-up for £9.99; at another I bought a local paper and was urged to try a giant bar of chocolate for £2. This has inspired me to come up with my own random special offer for postcard buyers – how about a cute little cactus plant, for £1 +£1 p&p?