An Evening With Simon Garfield

Simon Garfield is coming to Waterstones Edinburgh West End on Tuesday 20 October, for a talk celebrating his new book, The Pen: A Human History. It's a kaleidoscopic look at the humble pen, tracing its impact from a reed on the Nile in ancient Egypt to the houses of Montblanc and Bic, and from the wartime trenches to the desks of Jane Austen, Sigmund Freud and Margaret Atwood.

Garfield doesn't just stick to the big names. He looks at why fountain pens make such good gadgets for spies, tells the story of a bestselling pen that wouldn't actually write, and takes in the highest echelons of pen artistry alongside generations of schoolchildren with ink stains on their hands. It's the kind of thing that makes you look at the pen on your desk and wonder where it actually came from.

This isn't his first go at these kinds of histories, either. He's also written On the Map and Just My Type, so he's well-versed in taking something we usually take for granted and showing the whole, strange story behind it.

The talk starts at 19:00 at Waterstones, 128 Princes Street, Edinburgh New Town EH2 4AD, and tickets are between £5.00 and £23.00.