The company William Hannah Ltd will be a new one to a lot of people in the Travellers Notebook community, but the company has been making disc-bound notebook/planner covers for a few years. These covers have been very well received and are finished to a very high standard by artisans in England using Italian vegetable dyed leather hides.
Their A5 and A6 disc-bound notebook covers have been reviewed over on Philofaxy links to those reviews are here if you are interested in finding out more about those:
However, today I’m reviewing a new Pocket Notebook cover. Once again it is made from the finest Italian vegetable dyed leather hides and finished to the same high standard.
The Pocket Notebook comes in a stylish black presentation gift box with the WH logo embossed in to the front surface, the box is a clam shell design and it just increases the anticipation when opening it for the first time.
The first time I saw this packaging with the A5 notebook back in 2016 I thought about what it would be like to receive such a package as a gift. The receiver would have no clue what was in their surprise gift package!
The surprise element continues when the box is opened as the notebooks are wrapped in monogrammed tissue paper and the notebooks come in an envelope.
Unwrapping them you then see the Pocket Notebook in all its glory along with the notebooks. The notebook shown in this review is Black with Ultra-Voilet interior.
The simple and elegant design shows off the beauty of the leather and the close stitching around the edges. This Pocket Notebook is made to last a long time and the leather will just improve with age. The front cover features the WH button which secures the elasticated pen loop on the inside of the pocket notebook.
Unlike the larger disc-bound notebook covers, the Pocket Notebook features internal pockets in the front cover, these will take standard size credit/bank cards as well as business cards.
Just a size comparison this is a standard size UK passport which is slightly smaller than the 14 cm x 9 cm pocket notebooks this cover was designed for.
The interior leather shown here in the spine of the cover has a suede like finish to it.
The rear inside slip pocket is full depth and can take a passport easily.
There is a full height slip pocket behind the pockets of the credit card slots on the inside front cover, but it isn’t the full depth due to the metal front cover button which goes through the cover from outside to inside. However it is 6.5 cm deep so it can accommodate paper such as receipts etc.
Naturally the full height pocket in the rear inside cover is intended to hold the notebooks in place, but there is plenty of space to slide in my passport behind the notebook cover. The rear inside cover pocket is 8cm deep.
This gave me an idea… could you fit more than one notebook in to the cover? Yes you can!
And it works quite well. The cover is big enough to take the additional notebooks.
In fact I went one stage further and added a third notebook.
The pen loop is fully elasticated and will take a variety of pens here I slotted in a Uniball Eye gel pen.
Or a Pilot Frixion pen it fits perfectly. Being internal the pen doesn’t catch when you put the Pocket Notebook in and out of your pockets or a bag.
As you can just about see the pen nestles neatly inside with the notebook without the two becoming bulky.
The William Hannah Pocket Notebook cover will also take other brands of pocket size notebooks, here it is with a Moleskine pocket notebook.
I also wanted to try it with this French brand of pocket size notebooks. These are much thicker, but the pocket notebook cover handles it perfectly.
As a comparison here are some photos to compare the Pocket Notebook cover to the William Hannah A6 discbound notebook cover.
The pocket notebooks are 9 cm by 14 cm, A6 is 10.5 cm by 14.8 cm, but the A6 disc bound cover is much more bulky in comparison.
I’ve been using the A6 quite a bit and I quite like its compact size, but the Pocket Notebook is even more compact without sacrificing a great deal of page size for writing!
Without the discs to accommodate, the Pocket Notebook cover is that much slimmer in width.
Launch colour combinations of the Pocket Notebook will be : Whiskey & Kingfisher, Black & Kingfisher, Agave & Lime, Bordeaux & Petrol, Whiskey & Orange, Dark Chocolate & Petrol and Deep Purple & Fuchsia.
Price will be £79 for the off-the-shelf colours above. See this page on the website: Pocket Notebook Covers
Custom combinations will be the same as for A6 & A5 (i.e. all leathers and all suedes). Difference to A5/A6 will be that only one stitching colour is available inside and out (not two).
Price for custom combinations will be the same as the A6 – £120. See this page on the website: Bespoke Pocket Notebook Covers
Thank you to David Round for supplying the review sample of the Pocket Notebook cover shown in this review.
Further Information:
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