Forgive the contradiction in terms, but I’ve long mourned the decline of the commonplace book, so I was delighted to discover at a craft fair at Rodmarton Manor last autumn that local bookbinder Ursula Jeakins of Starsmead Bookbinding now creates beautiful volumes especially for that purpose.
While there’s been a surge of interest in journalling lately, the end products seem to be fancy versions of the desk diary or personal planner. They’re the jazzier descendant of the 1980s must-have accessory for executives, the Filofax.
Social media is full of ads for the dotted notebooks, pens, stencils, stickers .and washi tape (decorative Japanese masking tape) considered de rigueur for the curation of a modern journal. How do people find time to transform to-do lists into works of art? Perhaps they allocate hours to the activity in a neat grid in their journals.
The traditional commonplace book, on the other hand, for which you need only a notebook and pen, gets little airtime these days. Perhaps that’s because it’s less of a money-spinner for suppliers or dopamine source for buyers. For a commonplace book, you don’t need fancy effects. You just write down text extracts you’d like to preserve from whatever you’ve been reading. It’s the words that make the commonplace book worthwhile, not surface decoration.
Any striking piece of text qualifies for inclusion, whether taken from a book, a magazine or newspaper, or from online platforms. Your chosen quotes may be inspiring, provocative or enlightening. They may express original thoughts that especially resonate with you, or beliefs you’ve long held phrased in a new and beautiful way.
Long ago, when everyone wrote by hand and read only from the printed page, commonplace books were much more, er, common. To the literate classes, it was second nature to copy out prose or poetry that took their fancy. A good commonplace book distills into a single volume the best of what you’ve read. Even influential thinkers such as John Milton and Virginia Woolf also kept commonplace books.
A few years ago, I started keeping my own commonplace book in a notebook given to me by my best friend. The high-quality paper and hardback binding demanded a special purpose. Stationery addicts like me tend to hoard beautiful notebooks – and then end up writing mostly on scrap paper, rather than despoil their pristine pages. I was determined not to add this notebook to my guilty stockpile of blanks.
The cover of my current commonplace book is a facsimile of a book by Enid Blyton, not renowned for her eloquence, but she helped turn generations of children into avid readers, including me.
It’s intriguing to flick back through my commonplace book to see whose words of wisdom I’ve preserved over the years. They come from the likes of novelistsBarbara Pym and Philip Pullman, travel writers Jan Morris and Patrick Leigh Fermor, artists Leonardo da Vinci and David Hockney, and from Hawkesbury’s own stable of authors, John Ruthven, in an extract from his excellent memoir The Whale in the Living Room.
Confession time: I seldom go back to read what I’ve recorded there, but scientific evidence shows the act of writing something helps you process its essence and embed it in your subconscious. Perhaps I should start writing down where I park my car or leave my glasses so that I can find them again.
So, while the nights are still long, and it’s easier to find time to curl up by the fireside with a good book than inspring or summer, try starting your own commonplace book and gain extra mileage from your winter reading.
(This article first appeared in the January 2026 edition of the Hawkesbury Parish News.)
In Other News
Huge thanks to everyone who bought a copy of my latest mystery novel, Death at the Village Christmas Fair, helping it reach bestseller status. Of course, being a Christmas book, it will now rapidly plummet down the charts, but if you’re looking for a seasonal read for January, you might like to try these books from my back catalogue, each of which starts in January and finishes around Valentine’s Day:
Murder at the Well is the fourth Sophie Sayers mystery, and Wicked Whispers at St Bride’s is the third Gemma Lamb, but you don’t need to have read the earlier books for these to make sense.
Meanwhile, I’m having a quiet week, finally catching up with myself at my desk – which doesn’t mean just writing. There’s also always admin to do.
For example, today I had to submit some information and images to event organisers, ready for my appearance at the London Book Fair in March and the London Festival of Writing in June. (See event details and links in the right hand sidebar.) Those events feel like a long way off just now, but I’m sure they’ll come round fast.
What I’m Reading
Busy as I am, I still make sure I squeeze in at least an hour of reading each day, usually in the morning after breakfast. I’ll add below my brief reviews for the last three books I read in 2025. By chance, I’ve met the authors of all three – Judith in a Zoom call, Joly as a student of the course I teach for Jericho Writers, and Amon Chizema when he introduced hmself at last year’s Troubador Self Publishing Conference. All three books are great examples of self-publishing done well, and I really enjoyed reading all three.
(Click the titles to go to each book’s sales page on Amazon.)
Burnt Siena by Judith May Evans
Having visited Siena as a tourist a long time ago, I was keen to read this book to provide some insights into its medieval history, and soon found myself swept up in an epic tale of mercenaries fighting for power and influence, affecting ordinary people throughout the region, in particular two childhood sweethearts torn apart by the conflict.
The detail was powerful and realistic, incorporating the merciless horror of the battles without ever becoming sensationalist. The characterisation is thoughtful and complex, and I particularly enjoyed the inclusion of the later St Catherine of Siena and her extraordinary take on faith, with walk-on parts for medieval writers Chaucer and Boccaccio in their roles as ambassadors for their respective rulers.
It’s a rollercoaster of a read in terms of the romantic thread, with a satisfying ending. Highly recommended.
The Porcelain Poet by Joly Braime
What a joy! A gripping page-tuner that satisfies in so many ways – twisting plot, strong and believable characterisation, vividly described interesting settings, political overtones, historic atmosphere, told with knowing wit and charm. Very glad to learn that Harrison Catcliffe and friends will return for a third adventure. Highly recommended. (The first in this series, The Tin Face Parade, is also a terrific read.)
The Land Remembers: Blood, Soil, and Survival by Amon Chizema
This is a beautiful, slow-burn story of one man’s struggle to sustain his African farm, in the face of diversity.
The name of the farm, Alkubelan, is thought to be an ancient name for the African continent – but even if I hadn’t known that, I’d still have thought it read like an allegory for the whole of Africa and even for the planet and humanity.
An inspiring example of how when greed and selfish desires are cast aside, humanity can work together for the common good. Highly recommended.
