About us

The Writing Desk is a family-run business established in 2000 by Anna and Martin Roberts.

Update January 2025

After serving the fountain pen community as on-line (and B&M) retailers for the best part of 25 years we have decided to take a break. Therefore, the retail side of our business will be closing by 31st March 2025. We're not going away completely as we'll still be doing custom nibs and some servicing and repair work and I'm sure we'll see you from time to time at a pen show. However, we are no longer buying new stock for sale on our website and almost everything is reduced in price to clear. Our website will stay active but as a source of information, not an e-commerce operation.

We'd like to say a big thank you to everyone for their support, friendship, conversation, kindness and advice over the years.  We look forward to serving your pen-related needs in the future.

Who are we?

We are Anna and Martin, two pen enthusiasts who left "proper jobs" to do what we do.

Anna is a Solicitor but left the legal profession when her first child was born. Together with husband Martin, a Chartered Engineer, they founded The Writing Desk in 2000. In 2007, following redundancy, Martin joined The Writing Desk full-time.

There is still just the two of us and we do everything in-house (with the exception of a few repairs that have to be sent out).

Why buy from The Writing Desk?

We have 25 years of experience in selling pens and a lifetime's passion for pens and all things stationery. You could call us stationery junkies! We chose a change of career and lifestyle and The Writing Desk is our sole occupation and our livelihood so we take it seriously. We believe that our education and past professional experience helps us to run a well thought out and efficient business, providing you with value for money products and great customer service.

We aim to bring you good old fashioned honest customer service with the ease of 21st-century shopping.

As authorised dealers of 45 brands we have, over the years, built up trusted relationships with our suppliers which enables us to give our customers up to date information on new products and special offers.

Finally, if you buy a fountain pen from us, we check and tune the nib as standard on all premium level pens (conditions apply - full details here).

In 2017 we opened a specialist retail shop in the heart of Bury St Edmunds which we enjoyed a great deal and serviced many happy customers but with the changing times, we made the decision at the end of our lease in 2021 to go back to on-line only.  We now have a workshop with a small showroom area and are happy to accept customers by appointment.

Our Philosophy

Our philosophy is to provide the best possible service in all aspects and although we run an automated e-commerce system on our website we always deal with each order personally. We pride ourselves in providing a professional and personal service to all our customers and you can read some of their testimonials on our Reviews page.

We hope you find our website interesting and informative. We look after it in-house and we strive to ensure that all the information presented is accurate and up to date. If you do find a mistake, please pop us an e-mail.