I have long been a fan of The Author notebooks and have twice written reviews about them; in August ’18 I wrote about a black one I had bought and later at Christmas I reviewed the red festive edition.
Now GLP Creations have released two new colours. A dark green (aka Forest Green) with an aged leather look cover and a sapphire blue (aka Navy Blue) again with a leather effect cover but this one is grain finish not aged.
This time I have been very lucky, and Gavin has sent me one of each to review and just to make things a little more interesting the blue has dot grid pages and the green is lined.
Earlier editions of The Author used to arrive shrink wrapped with a paper band around the middle; this latest edition is still shrink wrapped but now it comes in a cream coloured card slipcase. The front of the slipcase simply tells you what it is and the rear has a contents grid and product information and a blank spine; I think this is a great addition to the notebook and will be especially useful to anyone who likes to archive their notebooks.
Another new addition is a Thank You card from GLP; the card is approximately A7 sized written in a pleasing handwriting styled font with a gold blocked border, GLP logo and text divider. It’s a nice touch because at the end of the day good quality notebooks do not come at budget prices and it would be very easy for GLP not to incur the cost of these cards, but it says a lot about GLP that they choose to spend some money to say thank you to their customers.
Also, inside the notebook you will find a complimentary sheet of blotting paper and if you are anything like me this is a lifesaver because the one thing I always forget is blotting paper.
The notebooks themselves are A5 ‘slim’ meaning they are approximately 140mm x 210mm which I find just the right size for an everyday notebook. Each notebook has 192 pages of 68gsm Tomoe River paper and because Tomoe River is a lightweight paper it means the notebook is positively svelte measuring around 10mm thick and each page is printed in light grey dots or lines and is numbered.
Dot grid is 5mm spacing and the lined version has the lines set at 7mm; interestingly the lines are not solid but are a sequence of tiny dashes. Having used the dot grid previously and now having had the opportunity to try out the lined version I would say that I think I prefer the lined version, the increased line spacing allows me a little more space to scribble at speed and still stay roughly within the lines.
One of the things I like about these notebooks is the page numbering combined with the Contents pages at the front means it is easy to keep track of your notes especially if you use this notebook to record information that covers multiple projects. There are three of these pages with twenty-four lines per page following the same template as the grid on the back of the slipcase; they are also printed on a heavier grade of paper which I would guess is around the 100gsm mark.
Moving on to the covers, these are made from a very good quality leather effect synthetic material and the edges are finished in a complementary colour; for the green cover the edging is brown and for the blue it is wine-red colour.
The leather effect on the blue notebook is a grain finish whilst with the green GLP have gone for an aged look. The image below shows what a good job GLP have done of creating an aged finish when it is compared to a green leather covered notebook dated 1866.
Built into the rear cover is the elastic closure which creates no discernible bump so should make no difference even when writing towards the end of the notebook. AS the elastic closure is often the achilles heel of notebook build quality I spent some time testing this and so far, so good; it has stood up to general use including me stuffing the notebook with papers to see what would happen when it was overloaded and I’m happy to say there were no problems.
Also on the rear of the notebook you will find the GLP logo debossed in the centre of the bottom edge and the inner side of this cover has a very useful pocket.
As I said earlier this notebook is built using Tomoe River paper; the paper is stitched in sections and then assembled into a notebook. What this means is that the notebook will lie flat, in use, enabling the user to write across the full width of the page which is not what one normally experiences with glue or staple binding. I’ve tested this and no matter where I opened the notebook it lay flat which is an impressive feat given that many notebooks claim to lay flat but do not do it without some encouragement.
68gsm Tomoe River paper is a smooth soft white paper and despite being slightly thin by paper standards, most paper in use today is around 80gsm, it is wonderful paper to use. It is fountain pen friendly and when I did the ink test using Diamine Regency Blue there was not a hint of bleed through. The amount of show through from such a dark ink is minimal, my camera picked it up too well, and you can use both sides of the page without any difficulty.
Overall, it is very difficult to find fault with ‘The Author’ because it simply is a very good everyday notebook; it is obvious a lot of thought has gone into this notebook and that GLP have not compromised because it is built from good quality materials to a very high standard and it will easily last for as long as you want it to and unless it has a really rough life the day you put it down for the last time it’ll still look as good as the day you picked it up for the first time.
‘The Author’ now comes in a range of colours and papers (plain, dot grid & lined) any of which can go anywhere with you from the coffee shop to the business meeting and whether you use it for work, recording recipes or simply as a place to store your thoughts I am sure you will enjoy using this notebook.
Disclaimer: Both of the notebooks used in this review were provided by GLP Creations at no cost and with no expectation of anything other than an honest review reflecting my opinion of the notebooks. I am not directly connected with either the creators, retailers or manufacturers.
The Indian Marmalade Company 