What your pencil reveals about you

By William Boyd
Updated January 25 2018 - 9:48am, first published January 19 2018 - 1:32am

One day, early in the 20th century, in pre-revolutionary Russia, a little boy lay ill in bed in St Petersburg. He was called Vladimir Nabokov, and he was destined to become a legendary novelist, but at that time was just a sickly child needing care and consolation. Accordingly, his mother went to Treumann's??? - a famous department store in St Petersburg - and returned with an enormous present. Little Vladimir unwrapped it to discover that the gift was "a giant polygonal Faber pencil, four feet long and correspondingly thick". It was part of a promotional window-dressing display and Mrs Nabokov had - presciently - assumed her son might have been coveting it. He had been.

Get the latest Bunbury news in your inbox

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date.

We care about the protection of your data. Read our Privacy Policy.