The Pen: Simon Garfield in Conversation with Jeremy Deller

From a reed cut on the banks of the Nile to the Sharpie, the pen has been part of human life for millennia. It is the enduring link between a writer and anyone, anywhere, who can read their words. But the story of the pen itself is just as fascinating as anything it has been used to record.

Join bestselling author Simon Garfield in conversation with Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller, as they explore the extraordinary history and enduring cultural significance of this everyday object.

Drawing on his new book, The Pen: A Human History, Simon traces the pen’s remarkable journey across time and place, from the inks and instruments used by Shakespeare, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens to the workshops of pen makers and the trenches of wartime Europe. He reveals how an object we so often take for granted has become an indelible marker of our shared culture – and asks what its future might be in an increasingly digital age.

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