It’s been another busy week of ups and downs – but which is which, you have to choose for yourself!

First, let’s start with some unalloyed good news. The company formerly known as Pocket Notebooks still sells pocket notebooks but is now branded in honour of its honorary canine CEO, so a huge bark of approval please for Nero’s Notes! It’s hard not to feel that Nero’s designated biped feeding unit has been awfully clever.

Less cleverly, the Kickstarter of Doom has started to grind to a messy end with the trickled dispatch of the benighted Namisu Ixion. Some United Inkdom readers (and contributors) have it in their hands now, and early reports suggest that, in the end, a jolly decent fountain pen turned up. We’ll publish a meta-review here if we can. The customer service experience, sadly, has left some vocal disgruntlement in its wake.

Surprisingly, another retailer we know and love has been making moves this week, with Cult Pens announcing that it has been bought out by WHSmith. For international readers, WHSmith is a long-established general stationer, which used to be as ubiquitous as Woolworth on every high street and still sells newspapers and snacks at most railway stations and airports. It does stock a few basic fountain pens, but combining this broad offer with the USP of a specialist pen boutique is, well, an ‘interesting development’. The move’s raised a few eyebrows amongst enthusiasts, but fingers crossed that it works out.

Finally, we have been completely baffled this week by a Korean ink which costs three times as much as a good fountain pen. We have plenty of time for the retailers, who know their stuff and sell some cracking gear, but seriously – £45? Shiver me timbers! Colorverse is  offering an 80ml package for that handsome sum, with some of the sets featuring two different hues. This one is highly unlikely to end up on a United Inkdom meta-review, though, for the simple reason that none of us can afford it. Can you?