I buy my diary at Smythson every year.
And by every year, I mean the last two years. You see, my husband happily surprised me by buying me the W1 in December 2013. At £295, it is Smythson's most expensive diary, and you'd not be wrong for calling it excessive.
People all year long have commented on the loveliness of my diary, envious eyes spying its iconic blue featherlight paper and luxurious cobalt blue crocodile binding, wishing it were theirs. Sometimes even telling me they wished it were theirs.
It is an extravagant statement of outrageous wealth.
But my husband bought this diary for me specifically to use at work. As a manager of a team of 15 people, it has kept me more organised throughout 2014 than I ever have been. I get a full A4 page for each working day of the year, and I use the weekends for additional overflow notes from the week. My entire worklife is in this diary. It's become an extension of me at work that I wouldn't know what to do with myself without it. One time I worked from home and accidentally left my diary at work, trudging rudderless through my wasted working day.
The diary itself isn't just a pretty statement object, though. The pages are Bible-page thin, which means the diary is surprisingly light and flexible - allowing me to run from meeting to meeting throughout the day with ease, never feeling encumbered by a heavy day-per-page beast. Yet the pages take any of my fountain pens' ink without bleeding, feathering or presenting any dry-time issues, which means I can write in it with whichever pen takes my fancy (not something that can be said for all paper types, and if you're a fountain pen user you'll know what I mean).
So as 2014 came to a close, and I was nearing the end pages of my Smythson diary, I started looking at my options for next year. Aspinal, I thought. I went to check them out, and their diaries were like Porsches next to a Ferrari. Luxury stationers? I don't think so. No, an Aspinal diary would never do. I halfheartedly perused the technicolour diaries at my local Paperchase but knew before even plucking one off the shelf that it would pale in comparison to my Smythson - setting me up for a year of bitter disappointment.
I turned to my husband and asked just one request for Christmas. A 2015 Smythson W1 diary. So we headed over to the Smythson shop on New Bond Street the next weekend. The shop itself? Like any other shop on New Bond Street. Expect to feel slightly unworthy unless you shop in high-end boutique stores on the regular.
But even if you don't have a big fat bank account, you too can shop in the Smythson store. You see, if you're not quite as extravagant as me, you can get a pocket diary for as little as £29. My dad has got one every year since 1989, won over by Smythson's quality and craftsmanship. He dropped 2002 in the toilet - as soon as it dried out on the radiator it was as good as new (allegedly, the story goes). I certainly won't be trying that with mine... read more