Favourite Old Stamp Collecting Book?

As I re-engage with stamp collecting after many years, I'm also rediscovering aged books that I keep on turning to for reference and pleasure. Here is my favourite…. Share yours?

Exactly same book. Was ex library and must be at least 40 years old.

Chesham

This one is my favourite holiday book, and I don't even travel! Things have undoubtedly changed a lot since the 1974 edition but it doesn't lessen the enjoyment in touring Europe via the chapters of this book.

A lot has changed. Countries split up. The iron curtain has dropped. Some countries no longer have post offices.
Many of the physical stamp markets will have disappeared, as will have a lot of dealers.
As for points of interest; many places depicted on stamps have become more accessible to tourists.
And a lot of currencies have disappeared.

Does that book also discuss the former 'East European' countries? One would expect that 34 countries include those. For 1974, that would have been quite an achievement.

The book has chapters on some wonderful places. You might like the ones on Albania, Czechoslovakia, DDR, Romania, Russia and Yugoslavia.
There is also a chapter on "Former stamp-issuing nations, territories and states in Europe" if you want to do some more exploring. The many photos, all in black-and-white, are just as absorbing as the text.

My most recent experiences with Russian post offices are a local one on Kadashevskaya Naberezhnaya and the main post office in Novosibirsk.
The former was a small one where panic struck when I asked for stamps to frank a letter to Colombia. The latter was one where we were sent to the next door twice before we found a counter that actually sold stamps.