I liked the A6 flexi-covered books, nicely stitched, with 320 pages of either lined paper (8mm line spacing) or plain paper, both of which were great for fountain pens. I bought a light box about a year ago, a self-assembly cube of white plastic, which had rows of many bright LEDs in the front and the back of the top section. I cannot see any advantage to the consumer in making the book narrower, except perhaps that it would be easier to fit in a coat pocket. When compared with other pens, it is interesting to see that that the uncapped length is not so different from a Montblanc 146 or a Montegrappa Fortuna, and these are not usually accused of being short pens.

First, as befits a book about a successful manufacturer of paper, it is beautifully bound and printed on Croxley Antique Wove paper, with text set in Monotype Caslon Old Face.The island of fountain pen display cases seemed to have shrunk a bit from days of old, but the usual suspects (Cross, Sheaffer, Waterman and Parker) were all there. I was a good match and the clear acrylic grip section allows the dark red ebonite feed to be seen and appreciated. I removed the pocket clip whilst I was at it, since I do not use it and the O ring alone still gave the necessary added height clearance.

But the triggering factors were (a) I noticed that it was available with an Oblique Broad nib and (b) it was in the Iguanasell summer sale with 20% off. SUSTAINABLEIn recent years we have all become more aware of the impact of the disposable culture we live in and would like to try and live a more sustainable lifestyle. At first it would not budge but when I tried again with some grippy material, it began to move and I was soon able to get it off. He had been working on making a slightly slimmer version but this meant having thinner walls on the ink reservoir, which he was able to show me. They advise that the pen be kept with nib pointing up if travelling by car or aeroplane but “If you bear this little advice in mind your Aurora will be your faithful writing companion throughout your life,” a very appealing sentiment.With one of these, you can take your light box out and about, and use it anywhere without being tied to a power socket. This year, rather than say “I plan to do more walking”, I set myself a challenge to walk 1,500 miles in 2022. My eyes were drawn to their Moderno B5 notebook, with 96 ruled ivory sheets (192 pages) of 80gsm paper. The real star of the pen, for me at least, is its oblique broad nib although this might not be everybody’s cup of tea. If planning to use a notebook for a multi-year bu-jo, then it is wise to consider how the cover might wear.