Gifts for Writers: The Best Presents for People Who Love to Write
Writers are simultaneously the easiest and hardest people to buy for. Easy, because they have a category of thing they love and use constantly. Hard, because they already have opinions about what they use, and the wrong version of the right gift can be worse than no gift at all.
This guide is for the people who love to write - novelists and journalists, yes, but also the person who keeps a journal, the friend who still sends handwritten letters, the colleague who covers notebooks in annotations, the family member whose desk is always covered in beautiful chaos. Anyone, in short, for whom writing is something they care about doing properly.
A Notebook They'd Never Buy Themselves
The notebook is the writer's essential object - and the gap between a notebook they're making do with and one they genuinely love is larger than non-writers appreciate.
The qualities that matter: a lay-flat binding that stays open without wrestling, paper heavy enough to take any ink without bleed-through, a size that works both at a desk and in a bag. Our lay-flat A5 notebooks are designed around all three - sewn binding, 100gsm paper, available in blank and ruled.
Blank suits writers who think visually or whose work spills in multiple directions at once. Ruled suits those who write in straight lines and want the discipline of the page.
Best for: novelists, journalists, diarists, anyone who goes through notebooks quickly and deserves a better one.
Gift tip: if you know which format they prefer, buy that. If you're not sure, ruled is the safer choice - most writers use ruled for notes and blank for other things, so ruled gets used more.
A Fountain Pen Worth Writing With
For a writer who cares about the experience of putting words on paper - and most writers who write by hand do - a fountain pen is the gift that changes things. Not incrementally, but noticeably. The line is different, the flow is different, the relationship between hand and page is different.
The Kaweco Sport is the one to give. Compact, beautifully made, available in a range of colours, and a genuine pleasure to write with. It's the fountain pen that converts people - including people who were convinced they wouldn't get on with one.
Best for: anyone who writes by hand regularly and is using a biro through habit rather than preference.
Gift tip: pair it with a spare set of ink cartridges so they can get started immediately without needing to buy anything else.
A Writing Set for the Correspondent
Some writers are specifically letter writers - people who maintain proper correspondence, who write to friends and family on good paper, who understand that a handwritten letter is a different category of communication from an email.
For this person, a luxury writing set is the most considered gift you can give. Beautiful notecards or paper, matching envelopes, everything needed for a proper writing session. Our writing sets are designed for exactly this - the pleasure of writing something by hand, on paper that earns the words written on it.
Best for: letter writers, people who love correspondence, anyone who mentions wanting to write more letters but hasn't quite got started.
A Luxury Pencil Set for the Writer Who Edits on Paper
Many writers - particularly those working on longer pieces - edit on printed pages rather than on screen. It's a different cognitive process: harder to skip over problems, more deliberate, more attentive to the rhythm of sentences. A good pencil for this work, properly graded and well-made, is a tool worth having.
Our luxury pencil sets are worth considering for the writer who annotates, marks up, sketches diagrams alongside text, or simply prefers a pencil for certain stages of their process.
Best for: editors, writers who work on paper proofs, anyone who reaches for a pencil as often as a pen.
A Card Worth Keeping Alongside the Gift
Whatever you give, the card matters - particularly for a writer, who will notice it more than most people and is more likely to keep it. Choose one that feels as considered as the gift inside it.
Browse our card collection for designs that feel genuinely chosen rather than grabbed in a hurry.
Building a Writer's Gift Set
If you want to give something more substantial, a curated combination works beautifully:
The complete writing kit: Lay-flat notebook - fountain pen - ink cartridges. Everything needed for a serious writing session, presented together.
The correspondent's gift: Writing set - a selection of cards - a beautiful pen. For the writer who communicates as much on paper as on screen.
The desk gift: Ruled notebook - luxury pencil set - a card worth writing in. For the writer whose desk is their world.
All of the above can be wrapped in our luxury gift wrap - which, for a writer who cares about beautiful things, is part of the gift.
A Note on Why Stationery Makes Such a Good Gift for Writers
Writing is a private act. The tools it requires - a notebook, a pen, somewhere to sit - are intimate objects. A gift that improves those tools is a gift that improves the writing itself, however slightly. For someone who writes because they need to - not for work, not out of obligation, but because it's how they process the world - that's a meaningful thing to give.
It says: I see what you do, and I think it's worth doing properly. That's what a good gift says.
Everything in this guide is designed in our North London studio, made in England on sustainably sourced materials, and completely plastic-free. Free UK delivery on orders over £50. Shop all →