I don’t do a lot of brown. Brown is for people who relish earth-toned neutrals and you know me, you know my penchant for the blues and you know if a thing isn’t blue it’s likely to be either bright or multicoloured. Now I’m not saying that I dislike brown, I’m actually quite fond of it as a colour. It is a brilliant stand-in for black when you’re searching for a staple neutral which has a bit of depth and warmth. Brown is less formal than black, but it can still be serious and business-like if you’re happy for business to creep an inch or two towards informality.
I’m harping on about brown because a few new things have sidled into my life the past couple of weeks and two of them are brown. Entering first was a big brother for my purple Filofax Holborn. This A5 version was certainly not on my list of things to look at. Well, not in brown anyway. I had been glancing sideways at the blue version, especially when Filofax ran some price reductions, but I wasn’t quite convinced that I wanted to buy another A5 Filofax. That’s mainly because I’m loving my personal-sized versions so very much. Yet there is something in me that knows I’m going to head back to A5 at some point in the future.
I can’t deny the only reason I’ve bought the A5 Holborn, and most particularly the brown version, is because my local department store, Jarrolds of Norwich, has decided it will no longer carry Filofax as a brand (boo!). This meant they had some impressive bargains, including half a dozen A5 Holborns, either brown or black, marked down by 70% – I defy anyone to resist that sort of pressure. The included diary pages date back to 2022, so this probably counts as “new old stock”. I hadn’t noticed them having more than a couple of any single binder design in their shop, so I wonder if these were hanging out at their warehouse, potentially to be brought out in September with next year’s diary added.
I like this shade of brown which is a touch deeper than my pen case (which I purchased from The Northumbrian Pen Company at my first London Pen Show). The shared DNA is clear between this and the personal-size Holborn. For anyone who likes their planner to lie flat, this is impressive right from the start, but for me it has enough structural integrity to keep it from being too floppy. This lie-flat style can be attributed in part to the lovely soft leather, but the design elements also play their part. I am such a fan of the pocket configuration on the Holborn design. As with the personal version, this A5 has double pockets inside the front and rear where one pocket opens towards the outer edge (illustrated by the burgundy bookmark) and the other towards the inner edge (illustrated by the yellow bookmark). The rear pocket features the same “hidden” zipped pocket that I love so very much in the personal size version – the pocket for secrets as I like to think of it. The A5 is never going to be an everyday carry-around for me, but with 25mm rings this is definitely one of Filofax’s more compact A5 covers.
I have already accessorised the binder a little, with a set of 3 mocha-coloured textured card dividers and a yellow plastic page-lifter at the back. I bought these from Kurashi Creations on Etsy. I think they’re classy and I really appreciate being able to order anything from 2 to 6 dividers, allowing me to customise my set-up to my own tastes. I don’t have any connection with this seller, but it’s the second order I’ve placed with them and I’ve been very pleased both times. The rest of the set-up is in the lap of the gods as I have no idea when I’ll start using it, nor exactly how. Yet I know that it is only a matter of time and then we shall see it in all its glory.
The second brown item to enter my life recently is hiding in plain sight in my Filofax photos: a bottle of Montblanc’s Toffee Brown ink. This was a generous gift from a work colleague who had used a little of it but no longer wanted it. I have quite a bit of brown ink, but I don’t like to think of anything being abandoned and unloved. Actually, I’m surprised by how much brown ink I do have. Having collected it all together for a photo, I find it’s four bottles plus two sets of cartridges. Two of these – Diamine’s Oxblood and their Burgundy Royale – might not be everyone’s idea of brown but they edge in that direction to my eye. And Herbin’s Cacao du Bresil only just stays in the brown category as it wanders off towards grey. I think the Montblanc is closest to Waterman’s Absolute Brown, but they each have a place.
I can’t wait to ink up the Toffee Brown and take it out for a proper ride. That, though, is waiting for the pens to dry as I’ve had a morning cleaning out almost everything I had inked at the beginning of the month. My June creative writing challenge saw me writing through plenty of ink and now I’m ready to leap into July with a bit of a change.
Pam Alison Knits 
2 responses to “But it’s brown”
The A5 Holborn in brown was an irresistible bargain and very handsome with the contrasting stitches. You did the right thing, helping re-home the Jarrolds refugees. (I bought two bottles of Waterman ink recently, at Glasgow’s John Lewis , when teduced to £3.45 a bottle!)
Now you just need some A5 fountain pen friendly paper inserts for the Holborn, to enjoy with your brown inks. You could also spend a quiet evening amending all the days of the week in your 2022 diary pages. Or maybe not.
Ah, yes, the A5 Holborn is a wonderous beast. You wouldn’t believe the number of diary inserts I currently have set aside to re-date and use in my coming “lean years”. No reason why I shouldn’t add these A5 ones to the pile. I like to think that all these things we re-home know how very fortunate they are that we came across them. I like to think they are happy to join our collections of random stuff other people didn’t want.