New British Books + Authors & their Fountain Pens

June 06, 2025

These days, writers who use anything but a phone, computer, or distraction-free smart typewriter are relatively rare. Most people can type or dictate much faster than they write longhand, and it’s definitely easier to delete, re-write, and move things around when you’re working on a screen.


Still, there are some writers who enjoy the act of writing by hand, with some even using fountain pens from time to time. A few examples…

  • Anthony Horowitz has expressed a fondness for writing with fountain pens, including a Montblanc and a silver Caran d’Ache.

  • JK Rowling has been photographed with a Montblanc Noblesse.

  • Welsh poet Dylan Thomas favoured a Parker 51 fountain pen - the same pen Queen Elizabeth II was said to prefer.

  • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is said to have used a Parker Duofold when working on his famous Sherlock Holmes tales.

  • Sylvia Plath is reported to have used Sheaffer fountain pens, though I haven’t seen a specific model mentioned.

Personally, my favourite pen is an Esterbrook Estie (especially the brighter styles) - and my favourite budget fountain pen is a TWSBI Eco. BENU makes some truly gorgeous models, too.

Art, music, sports, entertainment, movies, and many other subjects—these elements define who we are as a society and how we express ourselves as a culture. Take a deep dive into the topics shaping our shared norms, values, institutions, and more.

New British Books This Week

The Lonely Man by Ann Cleeves

SHORT STORY: When detectives Willow Reeves and Jimmy Perez rent a cottage on Orkney while settling into their new life, a visit from a mysterious woman to their elderly neighbor raises suspicions—and leads Willow to suspect that something about their quiet new surroundings isn’t quite what it seems.

Get it: Amazon

One Final Turn by Ashley Weaver

Ellie McDonnell travels to wartime Lisbon on a daring mission to rescue her missing cousin—while navigating Nazi threats, undercover agents, and her complicated feelings for the intelligence officer who nearly broke her heart.

Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)

A Schooling in Murder by Andrew Taylor

In postwar England, a murdered teacher haunts the grounds of a remote girls’ school—unseen, unheard, and determined to uncover which of those still inside Monkshill Park ended her life.

Get it: Amazon

Murder at Hambledon Hall by CJ Archer

When a gamekeeper is shot during a country house weekend, amateur sleuth Cleo refuses to accept the official story—uncovering a tangled web of secrets, scandal, and power that follows her all the way back to London’s Mayfair Hotel.

Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)

The Midnight Bookshop by Amanda James

In 1982, Dawn’s forbidden love threatens her marriage and custody of her daughter—forty years later, a secret long buried resurfaces, forcing a father and daughter to face the truth about their family’s past.

Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)

It’s Always the Husband by CL Taylor

When Jude moves to the quiet town of Lowbridge, she’s drawn to widower Will—until whispers of murder and buried secrets make her question if she’s protecting an innocent man or falling into the path of a killer.

Get it: Amazon

Fifty-Fifty by Steve Cavanagh

Two sisters, one murdered father, and two identical 911 calls—each blaming the other. One is lying. One is a killer. But which one?

Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)

Conscript’s Call by Griff Hosker

In 1940s England, seventeen-year-old John Sharratt loses everything in a bombing raid—then finds purpose, brotherhood, and resilience as a British conscript fighting across Greece, Crete, and North Africa.

Get it: Amazon

Murder in Bloody Weald by Irina Shapiro

Book 16 of the Redmond & Haze Mysteries: Days before his wedding, Daniel Haze joins Jason Redmond to investigate the brutal killing of a crime boss’s son—racing to solve the case before gang tensions explode and the body count rises.

Get it: Amazon

The Death of Shame by Ambrose Parry

In 1854 Edinburgh, apprentice Sarah Fisher investigates the disappearance of a young woman—uncovering a hidden world of exploitation and corruption that challenges everything she thought she knew about power, purity, and respectability.

Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)

Immortal Murder by Paul Doherty

In the winter of 1313, royal clerk Sir Hugh Corbett faces a deadly foe known only as the Immortal—who’s hunting down those behind a notorious thief’s execution, and has sworn vengeance that could shake the English court to its core.

Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)

Parallel Lines by Edward St. Aubyn

As their lives intertwine over the course of a year, a man recovering from a breakdown, his therapist, and a radio producer each confront fractured families, personal upheaval, and the unpredictable forces—both emotional and environmental—that shape their fates.

Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)

No Man is Just a Number by Robert Clarke

During a sunny town-twinning celebration in Saint-Sauver, the mayor is found dead—twice—leaving rival sleuths Richard and Valérie racing to solve the mystery first amid boules, brocantes, and buried secrets.

Get it: Amazon

“Hawthorne certainly had a magnetic personality. Although, of course, magnets can repel as well as attract.”

Anthony Horowitz, The Word is Murder

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