The Pen

The pen is our oldest tangible connection between an individual mind and the world at large, enabling the grandest proclamations and our most intimate confessions. But the pen’s own story is just as eventful as anything it has described. This is the illuminating story of how the simplest tool has shaped our lives.

Simon Garfield takes us from a reed on the Nile to the home of Montblanc and Bic, and from the wartime trenches to the desks of Jane Austen, Sigmund Freud and Margaret Atwood. He explains why fountain pens make such good gadgets for spies and tells the story of the bestselling pen that wouldn’t actually write. He introduces us to the very highest echelons of pen artistry costing small fortunes – but also to generations of schoolchildren with ink stains on their hands.

This is a lively, kaleidoscopic compendium connecting us to the object that has defined communication for thousands of years – one which offers a respite to our relentlessly digital world. The pen is ingrained within us, and this book will show far its ink reaches.