The Magical Realms edition of postage stamps are a neat idea, but have the right magical characters been chosen?

Would you trust Lord Voldemort to deliver your letters? That's the question I ask myself as I contemplate the Royal Mail's new stamps release, which has Harry Potter's arch-enemy (Ralph Fiennes from the film versions, in that really creepy make-up) among its choice of eight characters celebrating a theme of British "magical adventure".

Personally I find it hard to believe that an individual who'd kill you as soon as look at you can be relied on to speed your electricity bill to its destination, but I suppose, as the man says in Some Like It Hot, nobody's perfect.

The Royal Mail says it commissioned research from experts in British folklore and cultural history before choosing the characters for its new Magical Realms stamps. So we've got Voldemort and Hogwarts headmaster Dumbledore from the Harry Potter books, witch Nanny Ogg and cowardly wizard Rincewind from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, Aslan and the White Witch from CS Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia and, from the Arthurian legends, the enchanter Merlin and his nemesis, evil sorceress Morgan Le Fay. Good and bad witches and wizards essentially, plus one death-defying Christ-symbol.

As the Royal Mail's website has it:

"The UK has always been magic-friendly. Myths that arise from history, language and landscape have shaped our national identities, literary and artistic heritage, and popular culture."

All very true, of course, and the stamps are rather a nice idea – though personally I'd prefer illustrated versions to the film images. But have the experts chosen the right characters? Witch-wise, CS Lewis's is terrifying, but I'd vote for my own personal favourite: Melinda from Timothy Travels by Margaret Storey (her hair used to float around her shoulders when she was casting a spell).

And can you really celebrate British magic without a fairy, fairy godmother or Faerie Queene, a Titania or a Tinkerbell? What of imps, elves or ogres, the mermaid of Zennor, the selkies of Scotland or those vampires washing up on Bram Stoker's Whitby coast? George MacDonald's goblins or Susanna Clarke's warring magicians? Finally, given the requirements of the postal system, I can't help thinking that the magic mat from E Nesbit's The Phoenix and the Carpet might have been a handy choice for getting my letters from A to B on time.