Last year I went to the Northern Pen Show (my first time going to a pen show!) and had a really great time. I’d hoped to get to one of the other 2024 UK pen shows later in the year as well, but sadly I wasn’t able to. So I was super excited for the Northern Pen Show coming back around, as it’s in Chester, and only an hour’s drive away from me. 

As it got closer, I considered skipping it, as I didn’t have as big of a budget to spend as I’d have liked, having recently made a bigger pen purchase. But I figured a bit of window shopping wouldn’t hurt, and it’s not often you get to be around other pen people on that scale! 

So on the 27th April, me, my fiancé and my parents met at the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Chester for the pen show around 10.30am, half an hour after the start of general admission. Last year I think we got there earlier, which could account for why it felt so much busier as soon as we went inside.

I suffered serious temptation at the first table as you entered, which was the Write Here stall, which seemed to be the go-to place for all your modern pens like TWSBIs, Sailors and Leonardos. I saw several TWSBIs that are on my wishlist (mainly the Amazonite TWSBI Eco), and what appeared to be the full range of Pilot Iroshizuku inks. I managed to steer past them and not blow my budget on that first table though!

The back aisle of the room was definitely the busiest, as it seemed to be where a lot of the vintage pen tables were, and it was honestly hard to move at times in that aisle. The flow of people would just sometimes completely stop if there were people looking at items on either side of the aisle, which wasn’t ideal (and wasn’t really a problem anywhere else in the room, or that I remembered from last year), and it wasn’t easy to look at anything. 

Thankfully, it cleared up a lot in the central aisle, and that’s where I spotted what would ultimately be my one and only purchase: this beautiful green traveller’s notebook. I got this from the Kayztyle stall, which sold a range of colourful traveler’s notebooks, as well as accessories like charms, and a whole range of washi tapes and stickers (including some Pokemon washi tape I was very tempted by!). 

I dithered quite a bit between this little green TN and a standard sized one painted green, pink and yellow, but I kept coming back to the green one, so chose it in the end. I also bought a cute little leaf charm to go with it, and because my Dad also bought a TN at this stall and didn’t want the leaf charm that came with his, I ended up with two! 

The notebook is really nice quality, and I love the vibrancy of the leather, and the additional touches of brass on the elastic and the centre of the notebook. It came with three inserts, as well as the plastic card sleeve/zipper pocket. It’s a slightly unusual size, somewhere between passport and standard, which I like, although I was concerned about where I would source the inserts for it. I needn’t have worried though: the size as it turns out is called portable, and I’ve managed to get a range of inserts including grid, lined, dot and kraft paper. 

After making our purchases we wandered around the rest of the show, where I tried not to look too closely at some very nice handmade pens that were around, since I didn’t have the funds! I also wanted almost everything from the Toyooka Craft and Galen Leather stalls. I’m hoping in the future to get one of the Toyooka Craft pen trays and an A5 Galen Leather notebook cover for my Stalogy notebook. But I can always order that online at a later date! 

Overall, we were probably only in the show for around 40 minutes, which seems shorter than last year. But then again we had less money to spend, so I did less dithering on purchases, and it seemed a lot busier, so got tiring faster. It also isn’t a huge show anyway, which is why I would be curious to go to one of the larger pen shows, especially the London Pen Show. Maybe this year will be the year!

I’m definitely still glad we went though, and I’ll definitely be attending the Northern Pen Show again next year. Although note to self – save up more money next time! 

So have you been to any pen shows recently? What have been some of your best pen show purchases?