A new set of ten stamps, released today by the Royal Mail, celebrates ten Great Britons – and it's encouraging to see a classical composer acknowledged in his centenary year, Benjamin Britten. The stamps are available from today in a special first day cover priced £7.68.

Along with Britten, the Great Britons comprise the photographer John Archer who later became the first Afro-Caribbean London mayor, the archaeologist Mary Leakey, the footballer and manager Bill Shankly, the photographer Norman Parkinson, the actors Vivien Leigh and Peter Cushing, the politician and Prime Minister (1916-22) David Lloyd George, the food-writer Elizabeth David and the broadcaster Richard Dimbleby.

The centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten falls on November 22.