On Moleskines

"The world of stationery obsession is a deep rabbit hole. Some claim to find Moleskines too déclassé and mainstream, and instead prefer the all-American minimalism of Field Notes, or the more obscure cachet of Moleskine's older German rival, Leuchtturm 1917. Scientists have yet to determine whether using a Leuchtturm is likely to make your prose style more like Scholepenhauer's. But the important thing, as with a Moleskine, is just to make sure people notice you are writing in it."


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Calling on Moleskine fetishists - you may get a share in Hemingway
by Steven Poole
in the Guardian, 8 March 2013

Montblanc Starwalker fountain pen

The mild antipathy I was seized by during my brief encounter with a Montblanc Starwalker fountain pen was not born out of the facts. I could appreciate the effort that went into the design: it resulted in a fountain pen that looks like a sceptre topped as it is by a bulbous cap in turn adorned by a transparent dome where the Montblanc logo is perpetually suspended. The clip is oversized lending an air of status and importance to the pen should it want to emerge from a young entrepreneur’s suit pocket. The metal textured grip on the section shines darkly completing the futurist look. The nib emerges understated giving the pen a tone of function and practicality. And yet and yet…

The Starwalker felt plastic and ostentatious. The nib did not win me over. It felt firm and slightly dry, a far cry from the smoothness of the Meisterstück Classique for instance. It is a cartridge-only pen. This by itself is a deal breaker. It is possible that a suitable converter can be found but at the price of the Starwalker I do not to even have to try. I did not see the point of writing with a pen that carries around an acrylic dome where a white star is suspended as if in formaldehyde. Perhaps in time I shall see the error of my ways - in my next life, for instance, when perchance I will be reborn as a successful entrepreneur donning a Montblanc sceptre in my pocket and a Montblanc Starwalker cologne under my armpits.

Read the more positive Montblanc Starwalker review at the Fountain Pen Network here and here.

Stephens' Ink in London Glossy

Hidden London: 

The One Room Museum of Inky Stephens

One room filled with ink bottles and ink-related items is almost all that is left from the big business that was once Stephens' Ink. The brand that used to be a British household name is largely unknown today but Stephens' collection housed in North London's Avenue House, H.C. Stephens' family home, is lovingly tended by and added to by the trustees. Meet the famous Stephens' Ink blot!

Read more in London Glossy