Journal

Validation of the Valentine

By Robert Messenger Next Valentine’s Day will mark the 50th anniversary of the launch, in Barcelona, of the iconic Pop Art portable typewriter, the...

Typewriters After the Apocalypse

By Robert Messenger One of the weekend colour magazines carries a regular item called “Road Test”, in which it describes a rather obscure item for ...

Kitchen Table Typewriting

By Robert MessengerSalford, in Greater Manchester, has since 2014 been celebrating Shelagh Delaney Day (“Be Inspired”) to mark the November 25 birt...

Typewriter Poets

By Robert Messenger For the typewriter aficionado on Instagram, it soon becomes apparent that typed poetry is trending big time. And around the wor...

The Brilliant Dominic Green

By Robert MessengerIt's been more than a year now since brilliant British-born, American-based writer and musician Dominic Green wrote his wonderfu...

We need to talk about Kevin

By Robert MessengerLionel Shriver is a thoroughly modern journalist and writer and one with a keen eye for prophecy. She can still very much apprec...

Typewriters Behind Enemy Lines

By Robert MessengerAlan Wood was a World War II correspondent who became immortalised in print in Britain and his native Australia, online by Wikip...

England’s Typewriting Cricket Twins

By Robert Messenger Sir Alec Bedser and his twin brother and fellow England cricketer Eric were once the British Empire agents for the Blue Bird ty...

Imperial's Unsung Hero

By Robert Messenger Arthur Bott Pateman was the unsung hero of the Imperial Typewriter Company. While most of the credit goes to Hidalgo Moya ...

World Typewriter Day - June 23rd

By Robert Messenger On June 23 a bunch of people who, like me, have nothing better to do with their time and money than to spend it on old typewr...

New Year's Typewriters

By Robert Messenger In December 1899, the Blickensderfer Typewriter Company of Stamford, Connecticut, famously produced a full-age advertisemen...

Typewriters in the Outback

Ernestine Hill’s much used Olivetti portable By Robert Messenger When the famous Australian journalist and author Ernestine Hill died at St...