Carboot Pen Finds 03/06/2018

Found some nice pens and pencils at the local carboot today.

First up is an Universal pen all the way from the USA that dates back to the c.1960s. This has a black plastic body and a chrome top. The original “cartridge” inside looks usable but will get changed to a sac if leaky. (FPN has info about these.)

Second up is a ‘no name’ pen from prior to the c.1990s – clue “West Germany” on nib and OXO or OSA – made out of heavy metal and is black and gold stripes .

Lastly, is a Papermate ballpoint (not pictured) from the c.1980s with a nice green marble and chromed body. Along with the Papermate were a load of glass marker pens and sticky tape (I’ll probably sell these) plus five Berol Cardinal pencils in HB. These appeared to come from a closed shop as a pricing gun was in the next box.

Favourite Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley

The Darkover series has always been one of those series which can transport me away from every day life. I can remember scouring the local charity shops and carboot sales for books and  buying fillers from Mike Don. The best book buy was in Watford where I found the complete series in a tucked away shop.

Darkover is a planet populated by humans whose spaceship crashed and developed psychic powers to combat the borderline living conditions they find themselves in. Ms Bradley divided the series into many subseries that generally followed one another chronologically. Her main focus was on the rediscovery of Darkover by the Terran empire and the chaos this has caused to both societies.

Ms Bradley died in 1999 but the series has been continued by Deborah J Ross and is still a good read. (Not quite as good as the original, but still good.)

Ms Bradley wrote several seven other series and co-authored books with others. Her Magazine and anthologies were the starting point of many careers up to the 2000s.

Links
Bibliography
The MZB Literary trust