The beaming faces of Olympic torchbearers lighting up our TV screens and so many of us taking part in cultural activities related to the Games really bring home just how much the Olympic spirit touches the individual spirit.

This feeling is reflected in the British Library’s new exhibition, Olympex: Collecting the Olympic Games - and stamp collector Alan Sabey, from Southall, has been invited to display his private collection of postage stamps and other memorabilia from the last time the Games hit London, in 1948.

"It’s an honour, I feel very proud," says Alan, 70, who is a member of the Wembley History Society as well as the Society of Olympic Collectors, through whom he learned about the exhibition at the British Library. He is one of just three collectors invited to display at the exhibition.

Alan’s collection includes stamps, postcards and airmail stationery, as well as printing cylinder blocks for each of the four values of stamps issued for the 1948 games and envelopes posted at the special Olympic Post Office, situated in the now demolished Civil Hall close to Wembley Stadium.

"A very unique item is the two sheets of instructions to the postmaster at the Olympic Post Office at the Civic Hall - they are the only sheets," says Alan, who worked as a local government officer for the London Borough of Ealing until his retirement.

Alan can remember the Olympic Games being broadcast on the radio. "People didn’t have television sets then," he explains, "most people only got them for the Queen’s coronation in 1953."

Alan’s memorabilia has been to Sydney for the 2000 Games and Beijing in 2008, winning awards in both places, and now returns to London for this year’s Games.

He began collecting stamps when he was just seven, at first from all over the world, then concentrating on the British Commonwealth and then Britain and finally coming to specialise in commemorative stamps. He is now working on a collection about the life and times of the last tsar, Nicholas II.

"Stamps are often issued to commemorate historical events," says Alan, "so a great deal can be learned from what’s on them."

Olympex 2012 offers a unique insight into the history, symbolism and iconography of the Olympics, from the first modern Games in 1896 and including the 1908 and 1948 Games in London, and the use of private collections and postal matter sent to and from Olympians gives the exhibition a unique character and demonstrates how each of us can become involved in curating the Olympic story.

  • Olympex 2012: Collecting the Olympic Games is at the Front Hall of the British Library, Euston Road, St Pancras from Wednesday, July 25 until Sunday, September 9. Details: 0843 208 1144, www.bl.uk