A Warm Welcome to Express Readers!

Exclusive First Day Covers & Stamp Sheets

Welcome!

Cath Buckingham has been the queen of cover design for more years than she cares to admit.

She was head of design at Benham for nearly 20 years, only to be coaxed back by Tony to start Buckingham Covers in 2001. "I thought I'd retired", she smiles, "But actually I did miss designing". Most collectors believe since the Buckingham Cover collection began, she has created her finest designs yet - and the best GB first day covers anywhere.

In 2006, Cath took on a new challenge: designing her first Royal Mail Customised Sheet. It celebrated the 30th Anniversary of Concorde. "It is very different from designing covers", Cath explains, "but I loved the formality of the layout".

The sheet was issued in January 2006 and completely sold out, pre-release! "That was a buzz", grins Cath, "I saw the same sheet being re-sold for over twice the price within days!" Does she mind that some people just bought her sheet to make money? "No not at all. We want our collectors to do well".

Buckingham Covers are now looking to buy back their first sheet for their waiting list and offer £50 for it. It is one of many sheets the company is buying back (scroll down for a complete list).

Managing Director,Tony Buckingham is famous for creating official covers, working with organisations as prestigious as Cunard, British Airways, The National Railway Museum, ChildLine, the Royal Horticultural Society and the Royal Society of Arts. See the complete list of organisations who have worked officially with Buckingham Covers.

He brings this expertise to his stamp sheets. To date, Buckingham Covers has produced official sheets for Eurostar, ChildLine, the Terence Cuneo Foundation and the Falklands War Memorial Chapel. In 2008, they worked with The National Lifeboat Institution and Singapore Air.

You'll have noticed many charity names in the list. Buckingham Covers has an impressive fund raising side. Both Tony, Cath and their team are passionate about helping charity. Since 2001, Buckingham Covers has generated over £400,000 for different charities, including:

• £32,000 for Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital
• £25,000 for ChildLine
• £50,000 for the Falklands War Memorial Trust.

Tony is also known for the amazing genuine autographs he arranges for his covers. Again, he has brought his talents to stamp sheets. Since their second sheet in May 2006, Buckingham Covers has offered personally signed - and sometimes even multi-signed - editions of their sheets.

Buckingham Covers Sheets

To date, 22 sheets have been produced by Buckingham Covers. Many are now sold out and Tony is keen to buy those back.

Nikki Wright   Design Team Manager

Nikki Skinley is our design team manager. She has worked with Buckingham Covers for eight years now and plays a key role in the everyday managing of the design team, putting together our magazines, especially Cover Lover and our Sale mags. She also designs many of our advertisements and readers' offers. Nikki has started to design our Smiler Sheets (one of which was our Paddington sheet), which she is really enjoying. Previously, she worked for a publishing company in Maidstone called Pantek Arts. Nikki lives in Walderslade with husband, Ben, who were married in 2009. She has a dog called Ellie, a four year old called Jazmin who has recently started school and is very much enjoying it. The newest addition to the family is Jazmin's guinea pig Marbles, he is grey and white hence the name. She loves spending time with her family and friends and enjoying life.

Isobel Fraser Underhill   Designer

Born in Ottawa Canada, Isobel has lived in England since 1985 where she grew up in Surrey. In 1993 she started at the boarding school Christ's Hospital where she did her GCSE's and A-Levels. She graduated with a BA Hons in Visual Design and Advertising from the Universty of Kent in 2005. Having graduated she got a job at a printers in Ashford where she worked until she made the move to Buckingham Covers in 2006. Here she designs a lot of our Rail Club covers and postmarks amongst other new issue covers, and also helps with the publications. Recently she has started to work on the web design of some our new specialist sites. Outside of work she enjoys reading anything about ancient Rome, sketching, visiting museums and enjoying anything Formula 1.

Clair Palmer   Designer

Clair studied a Fine Art Degree at Kent Institute of Art and Design in Canterbury graduating in 1999, moving straight into the design and print industry where she has remained. Clair has been involved in reprographics for some major magazines before becoming a designer/picture editor for Saga Holidays and then a researcher for a picture library based in Maidstone. Clair joined Buckingham Covers in October 2006. Her roles for the company include working on all our publications as well as reader offers and adverts, more recently Clair has started to design covers and postmarks including some of the recent James Bond covers. Clair lives in River, near Dover with new husband Andy and her two cats Lily and Oscar. She is a keen painter and photographer, recently gaining an A* in GCSE Photography at college. Clair also tries to keep fit by regularly attending the gym and by swimming. She also enjoys cycling and walking. Clair is also a big Spurs Fan. Clair is currently on Maternity Leave.

See a complete list of Buckingham Sheets produced to date.