The nomadic Nomad Blackout pencil

It goes all over the place, this does. Well, it will do if you pack it in your pencil roll, at least - I mean, it's only a pencil. It doesn't actually have autonomous planning capabilities. But, as you'd expect from Nomad, it's a rather cool pencil.

Nomad may already be known to you as purveyors of joyfully over-the-top travel journals in pocket form (see past review here). The pencil can't quite top the giddy exuberance of the notebooks because there isn't enough space to reproduce random maps or photographs of astronauts, but by golly it's going to try to impress you nonetheless.

So, what's this pencil's party piece? Well, it writes nicely enough, with lead somewhere between HB and B which is pleasantly smooth on the page. It's also extra-long, like a Blackwing, so there's plenty of it to scribble with as you while away the miles. But for lovers of cool, it's black all over - black eraser, black lead and even an all-black case. Blackout indeed. Oh, and it's only a quid. Bargain.