Nibs for nobs

Forget Facebook. The hottest way to communicate right now is via a quaint old technique known as putting pen to paper. Sales of writing equipment at Selfridges are at their highest for almost ten years, suggesting that some of us are tiring of texts, networking websites and e-mails.

But has a popular backlash against irritating text jargon and MySpace really begun, or has writing become merely the latest prosaic activity to be rebranded for people with more money than sense? Selfridges has reported a big increase in its luxury stationery sales, as well as a 30 per cent rise in luxury pen sales compared with last year. Sales of the upmarket pen Montegrappa have grown by more than 200 per cent over the past six weeks.

It seems that London’s super-rich have found a new way to fritter away their lightly taxed billions. After all, billionaire scribes could always make do with a chewed pencil if they had no interest in status stationery.

But though an “it” notebook by Smythson or Moleskine is hotter than ever, especially in the front row at fashion weeks around the world, perhaps the boom in pen sales really is driven by the practical needs of the super-rich. After all, if you are signing a lot of cheques, you need a reliable writing instrument.

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