Smilers are the Royal Mail’s newest and cheesiest innovation, they allow you to have a set of personalised stamps printed featuring a photograph of your choice. You mail them a photo of yourself, your children, your local Lidl store etc. and they will reproduce your picture onto an authentic first class stamp. You can choose from 10 pre-set designs which are printed to the right of your picture, (this is where the Queen's head and the first class label go for you non-Royal-Mailer’s). Then off to the left appears your photo, they won’t guarantee perfect quality but they seem to be about as good as the photo you send. I thought it was a really cute idea for birthdays or graduations and they’re reasonably inexpensive at £15 for 20. You can find out about them at Royal Mails web site, www.royalmail.com.

And no, I’m not on commission.