For the beginning of something
A blank notebook is the only present that is literally about what has not happened yet, which is why it keeps turning up at the moments people mark by starting again: a retirement, a new job or the last day of the old one, a first flat, a first company, a first January after a bad year. The covers here are the ones that face forwards: a promise set larger than the date it refers to, three words somebody has chosen to live by, a line borrowed from whoever said it best, or simply a name on a book that is still empty.
None of this is printed. The words are cut into the hide by a laser in-house, on a book nobody makes until you have ordered it, and every line on these covers is a box you fill in: type the name, the year or the three words and the preview redraws at the size it will be engraved, so what you approve is what goes to the laser. A leaving do and a first day will not wait for the post, so check the delivery details below while there is still time.
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- Make it happen£17.99
- It’s time for a new chapter£17.99
- The retirement chapter£17.99
- Bump, baby and beyond£17.99
- Congratulations on the new job£17.99
- Graduation, class of 2027£17.99
- The university chapter£17.99
- New home, new beginnings£17.99
- Whatever comes next£17.99
- Initials for the year aheadInitials, or a whole name, set above a rule on a blank book somebody intends to fill between now and December.£17.99
- Be Brave. Be Kind. Be Bold.Something to start the year on: three words shuffled from a bank or written yourself, with initials in the corner.£17.99
- A line about getting on with itOne line about doing the thing, shuffled from a bank of fifty-odd or typed straight over, for a book opened in January.£17.99
- Property of, from todayA name staked on the cover of a book nobody else opens, for a new desk or the first week of a new job.£17.99
- A book for what comes nextA name in a display serif and, under it, a line saying what the book is for. Deciding that is half the job.£17.99
- Whatever happens nextThe promise as large as the cover will take and the number kept small. At the start of something, that is the right way round.£17.99
Retirement, and the cover that finally says the word
Retirement was the occasion this shop was worst at answering, and the reason was worth saying plainly: nothing on the page said the word, and a cover invented for the purpose would have been a joke about golf. The retirement chapter is the answer, and it works because it does not mention the job at all: It's time to write a new story, and underneath it, the retirement chapter. After thirty years in one office, what somebody wants is the book they are going to fill next. The same cover is on this page five more times with the chapter changed (a new job, a new baby, a new home, university, or simply next), and the line is a box you type in, so if the change has a name of its own you can use it. Property of and the monogram do the same job more quietly, and The best is yet to come puts the promise in the largest type on the cover and keeps the number small, which on a retirement present is the difference between a compliment and a reminder.
Three words, or none
Half of this page hands somebody a motto and half of it refuses to. Be Brave, Be Kind, Be Bold is a single line built from three words you shuffle or write yourself, with initials in the corner, and it suits a person who would happily put a motto on a desk. The empowering quotes cover does the same job with one longer line about getting on with it, shuffled from a bank of fifty-odd or typed straight over. The other two say nothing at all: Property of claims the book for one person, and the monogram sets initials or a whole name above a rule. Pick the mottos for somebody who would quote them back at you, and the quiet pair for somebody who would find being told to be brave slightly insulting.
Say what the beginning is, not when it is
The one field people rush on this page is the line under the name, and it is the line that dates the present. Several of these covers open with the year ahead already in the corner, because that is what most people want and it is one less thing to type. But a year is the weakest thing you can put there. A year is a year; "The first year of the shop" is a thing somebody will still want to read in a decade, and the box takes either. The same goes for the number on The best is yet to come, which takes any figure you type, whatever it opens on, so a leaving year, a birthday or the number of years served all fit it equally. Write the sentence you would say handing it over, look at the preview, and remember that the person is going to read this cover every time they open the book, long after the party is over.