Confession time. My paternal great grandfather (edit – picture at the bottom) was born in Smyrna (now Izmir) in Turkey, coming over and settling in the UK near the end of 19th century. I do not remember my grandfather (and certainly not my father) maintaining any Turkish traditions or heritage, yet when I see a product from the country of my ancestors I feel a tug to the heart strings. So when a small pen maker pops up in Istanbul my attention is grabbed. Problem was the costs of getting a pen over to the UK were comparatively high due to taxes, duty, etc, so when I heard rumours Kilk were going to be at the 2022 Spring London Pen Show my interest and attention was alerted.