Harrogate and more

I have been booked for most of this year to go to the Harrogate History Festival, and I was really looking forward to it, but I’ve had to cancel. My event was to be on the 23rd, and that is the day of my mother’s funeral. Apologies to anyone who was hoping to see me there. Before … Continue reading

Reviews: Deon Meyer: COBRA

Another day, another new book to read. Writing reviews for books is growing to be rather more difficult. There are so many writers who have a reputation for ‘log rolling’, or puffing the books of their friends, that their words cannot be taken on face value. I’ve always had it as a firm policy that … Continue reading

A New Week

It was just as I finished my last video, which was all about Conway Stewart’s demise, that I had a contact from a wonderful couple of guys who have set up a new company. This firm, called Bespoke British Pens, has been dealing with Onoto and other pens for some time, and now they have bought up … Continue reading

Conway Stewart Pens – RIP

It is always very sad to hear of an old friend who has disappeared. On Friday I learned that one of my real old friends has been closed. That lovely company, Conway Stewart, the specialist, luxury brand that made pens from precious metals, who supplied Rolls Royce and the Orient Express with exclusive pens, has … Continue reading

Let’s Get Inky

A short while ago, the very nice people at Cult Pens suggested I’d like to have some new inks to play with. Who am I to refuse an offer like that? A year ago I started to use Cult Pens’ own Deep Dark Blue ink. This was a colour they designed to match their own logo, … Continue reading

Pens I Have Known – A Review of a Life in Pens

  I am madly keen on fountain pens. On my desk right now, I have three Conway Stewarts, three Crosses, one Kaweco and one Cult Pens pen. All of them are regularly used. When I am writing, when I am planning, when I am doodling or plotting, the only pens for me are fountain pens. … Continue reading

A new pen!

I first heard of the Visconti pen some months ago when I was working hard on my last book. It is the normal way of things for a writer. You would not believe the inventive ways by which an author can avoid writing. There is research, there is reading other people’s books to get a … Continue reading

Pens, Pencils, Computers – Guess My Favourites

Writing – again. The last few weeks have been really fun. Hard, but fun. I am in the middle of the next book for Simon & Schuster, which is to be an action story based on the Hundred Years War, with the campaign that finally led to Crécy, and I am enjoying it enormously. However, … Continue reading