Matters Arising

by Scribble Monboddo

Ah, meetings. How we've missed them. No, seriously; they vary in quality of experience, sure, but after a couple of years trapped behind screens it's great to be able to actually talk things over in person again. But someone needs to keep a note, and of course it should be in fountain pen - we don't want standards slipping!

Here, then, is the solution. The key ingredient, as ever, is the lovely smooth Clairefontaine paper, which is one of the best-behaved surfaces for handling proper ink from a proper pen. Then the Rhodia brand has added some genuinely useful touches, including grids which offer handy prompts for key information without being too prescriptive, and easily detachable pages for scanning - because for the foreseeable future there will always be someone who needs an electronic copy.

The whole package just works. The A5 version pictured here is the perfect size if you spend a lot of time on the train; it fits those flappy fold-out tray tables while still offering plenty of space to capture the key action points. For more traditional deskwallahs, there is an A4 alternative too. Either way, it's professional enough to take to that big shiny corporate goal-setting summit thingummy, while allowing one to sneak in some serious nibbage to doodle with when the boss is droning on a bit... scarcely conceivable as that may be ;)