News
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Cult Pens Christmas Competition
The Graf von Faber-Castell collection has combined luxury products featuring jewellery-grade materials and details, with the simplicity and functionality that Faber-Castell have been known for over their long history. With over 250 years behind them, Faber-Castell show no signs of giving up on developing new ......Read More
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Jen Dixon: Artist of the Month - December 2013
Every month, we highlight the work of a different artist or illustrator through the title banner of our monthly newsletter - Penorama. If you don't already receive Penorama, you can subscribe here.The artist of the month for December is Jen Dixon, an American Brit based ......Read More
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Staedtler Premium
The name Staedtler is already associated with quality writing and drawing tools. Almost all of us will have used a Staedtler pencil at some point, with their Noris and Tradition ranges being classics. They’re the black and red or black and yellow striped pencils you ......Read More
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The Inkiest Diamine Competition
Deep Dark Blue was our first attempt at creating a new ink, with (a lot of!) help from Diamine. We hoped people would like it. They loved it, and our initial limited production run soon had to be extended, with the ink becoming a permanent ......Read More
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Andrea Joseph: Artist of the Month - November 2013
Every month, we highlight the work of a different artist or illustrator through the title banner of our monthly newsletter - Penorama. If you don't already receive Penorama, you can subscribe here.The artist of the month for November is Andrea Joseph, a 'professional doodler' who ......Read More
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Win a Lamy scala Piano Black Special Edition Set
Produced in very limited quantities, the special edition Lamy scala Piano Black set comes in an elegant and stylish presentation box. The set contains a Piano Black scala fountain pen with 14 carat gold nib, a bottle of Lamy blue ink and a converter. These ......Read More
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Platignum's New Range has Launched
Platignum was one of the great British pen brands, but sadly disappeared many years ago. For many people who went to school around the 1960s, and grew up with Platignum pens, they remained a fond memory. They always specialised in the sort of sturdy pens ......Read More
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Pilot Capless 2013 Jubilee Limited Edition
It's official, the Pilot Capless 2013 Jubilee limited edition fountain pen will be available from November 2013!All Capless limited editions are special, but what makes the 2013 version even more so is that it's also the 50th anniversary of the Capless fountain pen in Japan!Made ......Read More
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Forbidden Ink
"Can I borrow a pen?" My mate held out his hand. "Any pen." ......Read More
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Learning to Write Part 3: The Pencil Grip
The best writing hold is the tripod grip using the index finger, thumb and with support from the middle finger from behind, as recommended by the National Handwriting Association. To help children develop the tripod pencil grip :Using short, wide pencils, crayons or chalks encourage ......Read More
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The Stylus Pen: Not just for geeks any more
Stylus pens, meaning bone-fide writing instruments featuring a tip dedicated to controlling touch-enabled devices, have long been reserved to the geekier strata of the writing population. They are historically difficult to come by, often shoddily made, fitted with cheap ballpoint refills — and of limited ......Read More
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Win a Pilot Capless Retractable Fountain Pen
A Cult Pens favourite, the Capless fountain pen by Pilot is the perfect combination of luxury and technology and we’re giving you the chance to win one! First, a brief history…Pilot's engineers created many new products to celebrate the 1964 Tokyo Olympic games, but the ......Read More
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The Big Draw - Haunted House Drawing Competition
**Thanks to everyone that entered, we have now selected our top three drawings which you can see and vote for by scrolling to the end of this post. Competition is now closed!**Have you heard about The Big Draw? If not, the Big Draw was created ......Read More
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Jack Knight: Artist of the Month - October 2013
Every month, we highlight the work of a different artist or illustrator through the title banner of our monthly newsletter - Penorama. If you don't already receive Penorama, you can subscribe here.The artist of the month for October is Jack Knight, whose banner is inspired ......Read More
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Pens and Pencils I Have Known
One of the biggest tragedies of my young life involved a wonderful red propelling pencil that I was given for my birthday. I think I must have been nine. I can still feel the tremendous thrill of handling it and writing with it. It had ......Read More
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Learning to Write Part 2: Supporting Your Left-Handed Child
Children develop hand dominance at around 3 to 5 years (but sometimes later). Hand dominance simply means that one hand becomes more active in leading activities such as writing or using scissors. It can also be indicated by asking your child to pick up a ......Read More
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Cult Pens Mini Fountain Pen
We've come a long way in a short time at Cult Pens and August brought yet another milestone — the first Cult Pens pen. Introducing the Cult Pens Mini Fountain Pen - a simple compact metal fountain pen designed for portability and all-round usefulness. At ......Read More
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Stabilo - Stripe Up Your Life Giveaway
Who doesn't love the orange and white stripes that make up Stabilo's range of Stripe Up Your Life products? We certainly do and so does the rest of Europe it seems, as the point88 is the best-selling fineliner around! Get your hands on some cool ......Read More
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Miss Wah: Artist of the Month - September 2013
Every month, we highlight the work of a different artist or illustrator through the title banner of our monthly newsletter - Penorama. If you don't already receive Penorama, you can subscribe here.The artist of the month for September was Miss Wah. Her banner is inspired ......Read More
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Learning to Write Part 1: The Skill of Handwriting
Writing is a vital and valuable skill which we use on a daily basis. For children, it’s a skill they have to learn and develop gradually.What does it take for a child to learn the skill of handwriting?There are two types of motor skills that ......Read More
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Tim Siddall: Artist of the Month - August 2013
Every month we highlight the work of a different artist or illustrator through the title banner of our monthly newsletter - Penorama. If you don't already receive Penorama, you can subscribe here.Until now, only subscribers to the newsletter got to enjoy these unique banners, but ......Read More
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Staedtler WOPEX - Pencil Sharpening Therapy
Sharpening a pencil can be a meditative process. It temporarily takes you away from your task to spend a few moments in a simple, largely mindless process so that you can return with newly-sharpened vigour. Or at least with a sharp pencil.The problem with sharpening ......Read More
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Pen and Pencil Quotes
Throughout history there have been many great quotes uttered, “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.” by Albert Einstein for example, is one, but what of the great pen and pencil quotes?Over the past week, we ......Read More
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The Fisher Space Pen: Myths and Magic
In the 1960s, when the Soviet Union and the United States were involved in the space race, one problem they faced was how astronauts could write in the vacuum of space. Many people have had the frustrating experience of trying to write with a biro ......Read More
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Lorraine Tolmie: Artist of the Month - July 2013
Every month we highlight the work of a different artist or illustrator through the title banner of our monthly newsletter - Penorama. If you don't already receive Penorama, you can subscribe here.Until now, only subscribers to the newsletter got to enjoy these unique banners, but ......Read More
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Some Final Writing Thoughts
Until the next one …It's been three months now since I started writing this little diary blog with Cult Pens.I have to admit, it's been good fun having a chance to share a little about the work of an author - especially the pleasure of ......Read More
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Libraries and Public Lending Right
I had the “fun” this week of getting back to administration.People think it’s a delightful job, being an author. Well, yes it is. How many jobs can you think of where you get paid to daydream? But it does have the unfortunate difficulty that there ......Read More
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Signing - and not Signing
This has been an enormously busy week. Launch weeks tend to be pretty loopy, but this one, with four books launched simultaneously and then a weekend away, has been more mad than usual.Last week I said I’d enjoyed the running around from Exeter to Plymouth ......Read More
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Diary of a Writer - Competiton Winner
Before anything else, I must just say that I am enormously grateful to all of you for the entries to this little competition.I hadn’t expected quite so many names to be thrown at me - usually a competition of this type generates about twenty to ......Read More
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Signings, Marketing and Morris!
First, let me apologise. This is late on a Thursday night after signing a lot of books, and I am, in short, exhausted.We - that is Richard, the excellent Simon & Schuster sales manager and me - set off this morning before nine o'clock and ......Read More