Summer's Lease

Summer's here again - and we'd better enjoy it while it lasts! But you'll want something tasty to note your travels upon, won't you? Without at least a rudimentary record, the photographs become a forgettable blur, for a start. But with a basic diary of one's peregrinations, the pub anecdotes about hilarious happenings en route become all the more entertaining. Now there's a powerful motivation already.

For the sort of trip which affords a few minutes of peace in a hotel at the end of the day, A5 has a lot going for it as a format. It's portable enough to slip into most bags, but big enough to let thoughts ramble a bit. There's enough space for the occasional illustrative sketch, too. Nero has much to offer here, but as it happens a Wilder A5 has recently been in use by your loyal correspondent while exploring parts of Cornwall which do indeed look very wild indeed. It certainly did the job.

But of course many expeditions are less leisurely, and there's only time to jot a few notes while on a bus, in a plane, taking a breather on a seaside bench etc. For this, the 90x140mm pocket size is just perfect. It genuinely fits most pockets (which A6 doesn't always), there's enough paper to last a fortnight or thereabouts, and you can get them with excellent fountain pen friendly paper too. Nero has a huge choice in this size, but if ink is your thing then Clairefontaine is a lovely place to start - and at £6 for a three-pack admirably affordable, too. Handily, it's also about the same size as a passport, so if you're travelling overseas a Lochby pocket journal cover is an excellent way to look after both!