Simply put, this is the best ballpoint pen you can get for less than £25, in our less than humble opinions. The joy creeps up on you; you'll use your 849 pen for a few weeks/days/hours without incident (no blobs, no ink failure), when you'll accidentally pick up an inferior pen that someone has left lying around. It's then that you realise the joy of the pen you have been using, and you'll seek it out straight away. It'll soon become the pen that, if you hand it to someone to borrow, you don't take your eyes off until they hand it back. The pen you decide you need a spare of, just in case you mislay it. Or in the case of Zoë and Emily, the pen you have to have in each and every pencil case to consider it 'finished'. Notes from the manufacturer: Since 1969, the 849 ballpoint pen has been the ideal day-to-day companion. With its hexagonal shape, its aluminium body and its 100% Swiss Made manufacture, this emblematic instrument from Caran d’Ache guarantees unique writing comfort. The streamlined design of the 849 allows the Geneva-based company to decorate the body of this timeless writing instrument with a thousand and one inspirations. Yes, what they said too. 12.5cm