Imperial Good Companionthe British one

Imperial built the Good Companion in Leicester from 1932 into the early 1960s, and the name came straight from J.B. Priestley's 1929 novel The Good Companions, with Priestley himself an Imperial user. The early Model 1 is the one most people picture: black enamel, round glass-topped keys, a carriage shift, and a deeply curved segment type basket. Mechanically the line barely changed for decades, and collectors tend to describe them as snappy and mechanically sound. It is a carriage-shift machine, so the whole carriage lifts for capitals, which takes a slightly firmer hand than the segment-shift portables, but the trade is a reassuringly solid feel. If you want a writer's portable with a British accent and a long pedigree, this is the one.