There is nothing to writing; all you do is sit down at a notebook and bleed.

Top marks for presentation here before the notebook is even visible! What could lie within that mysterious black box?

The Calepino logo is admittedly a bit of a give-away for those who know their stationery, but the contents are still impressive. There is a ring-bound book, with a vertical band which looks like it was printed seventy years ago then travelled here in a time machine.

Actually, that's not far off given that, as the information slip in the rear pocket confirms, this is a hand-made product. Seriously - I mean, who even does that any more? The wow factor just keeps climbing...

At peak wowzertude we see that this is, in fact, a special edition made just for Nero's Notes. I really do mean special, by the way - there are vanishingly few of these so if you like what you see, stop reading this blog and order one right away! Look, it even opens up with a Hemingway quote, and everything:

So, what's it like for budding Hemingways and future epic travelogue heroes? Well, I wouldn't waste good paper on a type-writer (as he often did, sadly), but this can handle most other writing implements. As is typical for Calepino, graphite is its firmest friend, which is probably why there are even branded pencils for the purpose. It can cope with fountain pens too, although it's probably fairest to describe it as tolerant rather than effusively amicable; there is a fair bit of feathering with wet nibs, and enough bleed-through that you might have to put up with writing on only one side of the dot-grid pages.

Does that matter? Possibly not, as long as your intended use is of the first-draft-of-history variety rather than planning a calligraphic work of art; this one's for the Old Man and the Sea, not the Book of Kells.