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
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
It's time to light the candles and bring out the cake, as 2013 is a very big year for the Pentel Sign Pen - it's turned 50! Anyone want to start singing Happy Birthday?The Sign Pen is the ORIGINAL fibre-tipped pen and a revolution in ......Read More
There are times in the life of every author when they begin to feel they're going stir crazy.It's usually at this time of year, and it's normally when the weather is looking unbearably good out, while the poor scribbler sits indoors and shivers in the ......Read More
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
This week has been rather lovely!It all kicked off with a wonderful Saturday, the first day in ages that has been warm and summery. And thank goodness for that, because I, and the rest of Tinner’s Morris, were dancing out with Winkleigh Morris.Morris more or ......Read More
Many years ago now, back in the early 1990s, I was sitting in the New Cavendish Club in London, enjoying drinks with some Crime Writers’ Association colleagues, when a loud voice could be heard. It was the larger-than-life author Laurence Block, a proud New Yorker, ......Read More
For a writer, to sit indoors and stare out when the weather is fine is a form of torture. The urge to nip out and get on with the gardening, or just to take the dog for a walk, is almost overwhelming when confronted by ......Read More
Much sought after and admired, the Capless fountain pen by Pilot is the perfect combination of luxury and technology. We're delighted to announce that we've teamed up with Pilot Pens UK to give you the chance to win one of these pens for yourself! Before ......Read More
On Sunday, I finally finished the last proofs of the three books to be published in July. That was a relief. Two weeks to work on three novels is not a lot of time, but luckily, because the books were all published already, the number ......Read More
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
There are some weeks when the words flow and hum. At such times, it seems as though all an author has to do is sit at his desk and the words wash through him like a river. This week hasn't been one of them.It's a ......Read More
Ask one hundred authors what the best part of their job is, and you'll probably get about a hundred different answers. No author out and out hates writing, no matter what they say - or I hope they don't. What a miserable thought: having to ......Read More
Authors are often asked how they get ideas.There seem to be two supposed ‘facts’ about writing which are absolutely set in stone in the minds of the public: that all authors are multi-millionaires, and that it’s an easy job with a magical formula that changes ......Read More
This week has been a busy one. Over the weekend I had to drive 400 miles to Scarborough for their literary festival. Medieval Murderers - that is, my friends Susanna Gregory and Karen Maitland - and I were the very last gig of the festival ......Read More
It was many years ago that I first began to appreciate better quality writing tools - long before I became a full-time novelist, in fact. However, I still have a delight in using real pens and pencils, smooth paper and a variety of inks. Six years ......Read More
Did you know that April is host to National Stationery Week here in the UK? National Stationery Week or NSW for short, aims to get people not just talk about writing, but encourage more and more of us to put pen to paper more often. ......Read More
When it comes to choosing a new ink for your fountain pen, the name that nearly always comes to mind, is Diamine. But what is the history of Diamine, when was it established and just how many ink colours have they developed? We took the ......Read More
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
Easter is almost upon us and the restraint we've all shown by not breaking into our Easter eggs will soon be replaced with the sweet taste of chocolate and the remains of the once pristine wrapping lying on the floor. Or at least, that's how ......Read More
Thanks to you, we've just passed the 10,000th review mark on Trustpilot and we are over the moon with both the quantity and the quality of the feedback we get! Here it is, the review that took us to 10,000:FANTASTIC CHOICE AND REALLY QUICK TURNAROUND ......Read More
In case you missed it, February was very cold and wet here in the UK and so far the start of March has not been much of an improvement! Spring, however, is not far away and we should all start to thaw out pretty soon, ......Read More
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
The Hi-Tec-COur story starts with a relatively little-known, but much-loved, pen from Pilot. Here in the UK, we know it as the G-Tec-C4, while in some parts of the world, it's found in the form of the Hi-Tec-C. In Japan, there are many tip sizes ......Read More
This article is aimed at anyone who has just got their first fountain pen and could use a little advice on getting started. If you don't have one yet, why not browse through our huge range of fountain pens? Cartridge or Converter? Some pens come with ......Read More
When we think about it, most of us will have a favourite type of pen or pencil that we always go back to or can't write without. But how much do we actually know about the writing instruments we use or how they originated? With ......Read More
Florence 1987: Fine writing instruments from Parker, Mont Blanc and the rest are boring, bland and lacking innovation. Dante del Vecchio, a student of political science and a pen enthusiast, frustrated by not being able to buy a pen that suited his taste, decided to ......Read More
Update 3: See the bottom of the post for our conclusion on using these pens with Platinum's permanent Carbon Black ink.Here at Cult Pens, we're a bunch of pen geeks, but you probably guessed that. We'd be in the wrong job if we weren't. When ......Read More
As you know, we are big fans of Pilot's V5/V7 original needle point rollerball, so you can imagine our excitement when the new Cartridge System offering arrived in our offices the other day. More on this in a moment but first a very brief overview ......Read More
Pilot's luxury fountain pen inks, inspired by Japanese nature. ......Read More
