It’s time to say goodbye to the Letts of London notebooks I’ve been journalling in for the past eight months and I must say they turned out to be very good books indeed. The paper was decent quality, perhaps not so keen on heavy layers of ink, but then I didn’t expect or need it to be. With my predominantly fine-nibbed pens it was fantastic. I became very comfortable with the 6mm line spacing and I was a big fan of the double red lines at the top of each page. I found myself playing a bit of a game, trying to finish my journal entries at the end of one page so I could write the date on the “special” line at the top of the next. It didn’t always work out that way, but it was very pleasing when it did. I’m rather sad that Letts no longer seem to use this 90gsm ivory paper in any of their notebooks. I haven’t tried their 80gsm paper, but I don’t trust it to be as fountain pen friendly as this paper was. Just how much of a silly attitude that is will become apparent a little later.

When I started the first notebook on 22nd October 2023 I was writing with Lamy Blue-Black ink, although I think it is really quite blue. Throughout the course of both books I kept a log of the pens and inks I used on the contents pages at the front. As the pages in these books are numbered, by the time I got to the the second volume I started to add which pages I used each pen and ink combination for. By coincidence, I was back in blue ink as I came to the end of the second volume, though I promise that I used several colours along the way.

Now, as a bit of a stationery addict, I’m sure you will be expecting me to have found a swanky new journal to try, or one from some obscure brand. Perhaps something with some stunning artwork on the cover. Those are all, it has to be admitted, very much part of my modus operandi. You may, therefore, be surprised when I reveal that the next year or two will be spent in something very mundane indeed.

Yes, those are school exercise books. Not pretty, not elegant, not posh, and very definitely not expensive. Yet they are what called to me. Sometimes you just want a simple, basic, no-nonsense workhorse. They are 9″ x 7″ (229 x 178 mm) and I went for the ruled version with margins. I would have skipped the margin if there had been an option, but there wasn’t, so margins it is. Just the other day I saw someone on the internet who was writing details of pens and inks along the side of the entries she made in a notebook and I thought to myself “Those margins would be super for that.” Each book has 80 pages of white 75gsm paper which the manufacturers, Silvine, call “educational grade”. I think some inks might find this paper a challenge, but it will be fun finding out. I’ve done pen tests which indicate it’s pretty tolerant of my fountain pens. And, yes, you’ve just had proof that I live by double standards – rejecting 80gsm Letts paper as likely to be too thin, then opting for 75gsm Silvine paper. In my defence, I will point out that 20 Silvine exercise books cost me the equivalent of 1 Letts notebook and I’ll say no more on the subject.

I do feel inclined to do something decorative with the covers so we shall have to see what happens there. For now, though, I’m looking forward to getting out my pens and settling into a routine with the larger pages and brighter paper.