'A delightful book with profound knowledge and unbounded pleasure.' - PHILLP PULLMAN

'A paean to the pen - glorious and golden . . . At last, a book celebrating my most precious possession. I am so glad to better understand its history, and I shall appreciate my pen even more every time I pick it up'
EMMA THOMPSON

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.

'As a user and low-level pen addict I applaud this jaunty and entertaining journey around the most low key important invention of modern times.'
JEREMY DELLER

'After the wheel, the pen must be the second most important invention in human history. Or perhaps the most important: we can use a pen to describe a wheel, but we can't use a wheel to describe a pen. The many forms of this mark-making tool, from the simplest to the most extravagantly inventive, are celebrated in Simon Garfield's delightful book with profound knowledge and unbounded pleasure'
PHILLP PULLMAN

'You used to be able to tell a keen writer by the callus on their middle finger caused by regular use of their pen. They're rarely spotted nowadays, but anyone who has read Simon Garfield's brilliant treasure chest of fascinating stories will be rushing out to buy a pen - and we'll be flaunting our writer's lump with pride'
JACQUELINE WILSON

'The pen has been waiting a long time for its biographer, and in Simon Garfield it has found the perfect one. Erudite, entertaining and full of wonderful surprises, this is a book to savour - a warm, witty and engrossing celebration of one of humanity's greatest inventions. I adored every page'
SHAUN USHER

Praise for Simon Garfield:

'Digressive, gossipy, thoughtful and thoroughly entertaining'
Sunday Times

'Garfield's knowledge is wide and his enthusiasm matchless'
The Times

Details

ISBN13: 9781837263189
Format: Hardback
Number of Pages: 304
Edition: Main
Publication Date: 03 Nov 2026
Publisher: Canongate Books
Publication City, Country: Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 15.9(H)x22(L)x2.8(W)497
Weight (gm): 497

Author Biography

Simon Garfield was born in London in 1960. He is the author of an appealingly diverse and unpredictable canon of non-fiction, including the bestsellers Mauve, Just My Type and On The Map. He is a trustee of Mass Observation, and is the editor of several books of diaries from the archive, including Our Hidden Lives and A Notable Woman. His recent books include Timekeepers, In Miniature and All the Knowledge in the World. He lives in London and Cornwall.

simongarfield.com

Reviews

A wry, amiable read . . . Garfield has a ready feel for how these ubiquitous, unremarkable items fit into human culture * * The Times * *
A paean to the pen - glorious and golden . . . At last, a book celebrating my most precious possession. I am so glad to better understand its history, and I shall appreciate my pen even more every time I pick it up -- EMMA THOMPSON
After the wheel, the pen must be the second most important invention in human history. Or perhaps the most important: we can use a pen to describe a wheel, but we can't use a wheel to describe a pen. The many forms of this mark-making tool, from the simplest to the most extravagantly inventive, are celebrated in Simon Garfield's delightful book full of profound knowledge and unbounded pleasure -- PHILIP PULLMAN
You used to be able to tell a keen writer by the callus on their middle finger caused by regular use of their pen. They're rarely spotted nowadays, but anyone who has read Simon Garfield's brilliant treasure chest of fascinating stories will be rushing out to buy a pen - and we'll be flaunting our writer's lump with pride -- JACQUELINE WILSON
A likeable and absorbing history * * Times Literary Supplement * *
Engaging * * Economist * *
There really isn't a topic about which Simon Garfield can't find a lively tale to tell . . . From László Bíró and George Safford Parker to the exploding pens of James Bond, Garfield once again shows what a rich history there is to explore * * Esquire * *
The pen has been waiting a long time for its biographer, and in Simon Garfield it has found the perfect one. Erudite, entertaining and full of wonderful surprises, this is a book to savour - a warm, witty and engrossing celebration of one of humanity's greatest inventions. I adored every page -- SHAUN USHER
As a user and low-level pen addict, I applaud this jaunty and entertaining journey around the most low-key important invention of modern times -- JEREMY DELLER
Who is this book for? Quill aficionados, the inky-fingered generation, biro users, pen collectors and those seeking insight into the transmission of the creative pulse via a plus Parker, as Margaret Atwood puts it, from "brain to hand to pen to paper". In the words of Wordsworth, this book is no "dull product of a scoffer's pen", and Garfield deserves his Crackerjack pencils * * Critic Magazine * *