Christmas presents that took a minute to think about
There is no holly on any of these and no snow, on purpose: a cover about December looks wrong by February. Every design in this catalogue says something particular about one person instead, which is the harder half of Christmas shopping anyway. These are the covers people reach for when the list is long: the family titles, the pictures that start on your own phone, and the two that turn a place or a night into a drawing.
- World's best MumThe line off a thousand mugs, set properly for once and engraved on the cover this time.£17.99
- World's best DadWhat the mug says, on something he will still own in ten years.£17.99
- World's best NanHandwriting above her name in the heaviest type we have, which is about the right balance.£17.99
- World's best GrandadScript above a name set in type you could read across a garden.£17.99
- Best Sister everSettles the argument permanently, in type large enough to be seen from the other side of a room.£17.99
- Best Brother everA verdict on him, set in the biggest type on the cover and closed to appeal.£17.99
- Best Friend everFor the one you picked yourself, who turned out better than most of the ones you didn't.£17.99
- Son£17.99
- Daughter£17.99
- Your sky, chartedThe exact night sky above any place on earth, on any date, drawn as a chart across the cover, place and date beneath.£17.99
- Your place, mappedAny place on earth drawn as a map, marked with a symbol, its name and coordinates beneath and a line of your own under that.£17.99
- Your child's drawingUpload a child's drawing and it is engraved on the cover, with their name and age beneath.£17.99
- A handwritten notePhotograph a recipe card, a leaving card or a letter, and the handwriting alone is lifted off the paper and engraved.£17.99
- Portrait and caption£17.99
- A poem for themTell us about them (their dogs, their hills, whatever makes them them) and we write a short poem for the cover.£17.99
- Name and monogram£17.99
- Your company logoUpload the company logo and it is engraved as it stands, with the name of whoever the notebook is for beneath it.£17.99
Start from what you already know about them
The quickest way through this page is to decide what you already know about them and let that choose the cover. If you know what they are quietly proud of being, one of the family titles says it outright and the role is a word you can change. If you would rather define them than praise them, the dictionary entry gives the word its pronunciation and leaves the meaning to you. If you know a night that mattered, the sky chart draws it. If you know a place, the map draws that, coordinates and all. A shop window cannot make any of those decisions for you.
The ones that need something from you
Three of the covers here start with a file from you. A child's drawing wants a flat photograph of the paper, taken from directly above in daylight. A handwritten recipe card or a leaving card wants the same, and the handwriting alone is lifted off the background with the letterforms left exactly as the person wrote them. A portrait works best when the face fills the frame and the background is doing nothing interesting. All three are redrawn while you wait and shown on the cover before you pay, so there are no surprises afterwards. Give yourself ten quiet minutes for it, ideally not at midnight on a phone.
Buying for a team, or for an office
The company logo cover earns its place here because of the names. A box of identical notebooks handed round in December is just a box of identical notebooks; put a different name under the logo on each one and every book in it becomes a present. Add them to the basket one at a time and type the name that goes with each. The logo you upload is engraved as it is, with nothing added, nothing redrawn and no style laid over the top, because a company's own mark is the one drawing on this site we have no business improving.
Order by Tuesday 15 December for Christmas delivery. Everything here is engraved after you order it, so in December it pays to order early, not quickly. The date above is the last day we can take an order and still have it made, posted and with you in time. It is the only date on this page, because it is a promise about our own bench, and the post is the carriers' to promise. Past it, we can no longer say an order will reach you in time, and we would sooner tell you so than take the money. How long making and delivery normally take is on Delivery and returns.