The Pen: Simon Garfield in Conversation with Jeremy Deller

Simon Garfield and Jeremy Deller explore the history of the pen and it’s enduring place in our cultural and daily lives.

From a reed cut on the banks of the Nile to the Sharpie, the pen has been part of human life for millennia. It is the enduring link between a writer and anyone, anywhere, who can read their words. But the story of the pen itself is just as fascinating as anything it has been used to record.

Join bestselling author Simon Garfield in conversation with Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller, as they explore the extraordinary history and enduring cultural significance of this everyday object.

Drawing on his new book, The Pen: A Human History, Simon traces the pen’s remarkable journey across time and place, from the inks and instruments used by Shakespeare, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens to the workshops of pen makers and the trenches of wartime Europe. He reveals how an object we so often take for granted has become an indelible marker of our shared culture – and asks what its future might be in an increasingly digital age.

His work explores history, politics, popular culture and the everyday through film, performance, installation and public art. He won the Turner Prize in 2004 and represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2013. His major works include The Battle of Orgreave and Sacrilege – the inflatable Stonehenge – alongside his widely recognised public poster projects. His films include Everybody in the Place, Putin's Happy, Our Hobby is Depeche Mode and So Many Ways to Hurt You. In 2023, Jeremy published Art Is Magic, a reflection on his artistic practice and the ideas that have shaped his work.

Simon Garfield was born in London in 1960. He is a trustee of Mass Observation and is the editor of several books of diaries from the archive, including Our Hidden Lives and A Notable Woman. His recent books include Timekeepers, In Miniature and All the Knowledge in the World.