A special thank you has come from Germany after the Richmond and Twickenham Times helped a pen collector add to his collection of 400 local newspaper pens.

Ulli Russek, 47, from Edemissen, near Hannover, contacted the paper to ask if he could be sent an RTT branded pen to add to his collection from newspapers around the world.

His hobby started in 2002 after he received ballpoint pens from his local newspapers, the Peiner Allgemeine Zeitung and the Braunschweiger Zeitung.

The food industry worker now has almost 400 pens and has had to build two racks to hold his collection.

He said: “I am collecting only ballpoint pens from newspapers and nothing else.

“At first I put the ballpoint pens into boxes which are sorted by countries but now I have built a kind of a rack for the pens.

“I am happy about every ballpoint pen I get from newspapers.”

The newspaper fan lists all the pens he owns, alphabetically and by country.

His collection has hit the headlines in papers across the world including in the US, Sweden and Wales.

On receiving the RTT pen Mr Russek said: “Thank you for the nice pen. I received them today and I am happy that I can enlarge my collection with this pen.”