It’s fair to say that I’ve no idea what notebook, if any, was carried by Bertie Wooster but when I picked this up it occurred to me that this was just the type of notebook Bertie would have in his pocket and Jeeves would have had to confiscate to keep Bertie out of trouble with the courts, his friends or worst of all his formidable aunt Agatha.
This, however, is the up to date version produced by Sloane Stationery; it is a hardback A6 pocket notebook containing seventy two pages of unlined cream paper which has gilded edges, a matching black ribbon page marker. The cover is a hard card that has been finished with a lizard skin effect and on the front is embossed ‘A GENTLEMAN’S NOTES’ and on the rear cover, bottom centre, is the company logo.
The sections of the notebook are stitched, and the flyleaves are glued to the cover and all in all the binding seems solid and durable. The one thing to note is that this notebook does not lie flat even though it is stitched but in fairness this notebook is not intended for anything more than a hastily scribbled note.
I tested it with both a stub nib and a regular nib just to see how fountain pen friendly the paper is and whilst both pens showed through on the reverse of the page it wasn’t enough to prevent you from using it; but I would stick to single sided with a fountain pen. On the other hand, a pencil would be fine as would a biro, but a gel pen would probably show through in the same way as the fountain pen.
So all in all it’s a nice pocket notebook; it has sufficient pages to be useful whilst remaining slim enough to slip on to the pocket of your suit jacket without doing too much harm to the line of it and will look good in your hand whenever you need to use it. Whether, like Bertie, you are recording a wager at the Drones Club or simply noting down a thought for later this notebook will look the part.
Finally, is it worth the £15GBP asking price? On this occasion I do not think it is; don’t get me wrong this is a very nice notebook and would make an excellent gift but in this price range there is a lot of very good competition.
If Sloane Stationery were to ask me what they could do to improve this notebook I would suggest they consider upgrading the paper to Tomoe River; then £15GBP would be a more competitive price for this notebook.
Disclaimer: This notebook was purchased with my own funds at retail price. The opinions expressed in this review are my own; and I am not connected with either the retailers or manufacturers in any way.
The Indian Marmalade Company 