Vintage View: The history of the fountain pen

In an age when we rarely reach for a ballpoint, Kya deLongchamps scripts a little history of that old fashioned Christmas favourite — the fountain pen

ARE you old enough to remember the yield and part of a fountain pen nib touching paper? When my ragged peers and I were at school, maintaining and wielding an ink pen was a vital part of pleasing this or that nun hovering in a starchy, glowering cloud.

Oh, the shame of the errant blot on an otherwise perfect bit of script — disaster for a report card. Some new papers, clearly meant for the still outlawed ball-point, cruelly sloughed off the flow, while others drank it in too deeply, causing a minor desk-top drama, as we readjusted to the pressure required.