The Notebook

A History of Thinking on Paper: A New Statesman and Spectator Book of the Year

By: Roland Allen

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Paperback | 5 January 2024

At a Glance

Paperback
416 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
19.8 x 12.8 x 2.7

Paperback

$28.25

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Diaries, sketchbooks, common-places, notebooks, ledgers and ships' logs: how the blank book changed the way we think, and helped us change the world.

A 'Best Book of the Year 2023' in the New Statesman, Spectator and Waterstones'From plans for flying machines to philosophy - the remarkable joy of jotting things down' Guardian'Surprisingly revealing' The Sunday TimesWe see notebooks everywhere we go. But where did this simple invention come from? How did they revolutionise our lives, and why are they such powerful tools for creativity? And how can using a notebook help you change the way you think? In this wide-ranging story, Roland Allen reveals all the answers. Ranging from the bustling markets of medieval Florence to the quiet studies of our greatest thinkers, he follows a trail of dazzling ideas, revealing how the notebook became our most dependable and versatile tool for creative thinking. He tells the notebook stories of artists like Leonardo and Frida Kahlo, scientists from Isaac Newton to Marie Curie, and writers from Chaucer to Henry James. We watch Darwin developing his theory of evolution in tiny pocketbooks, see Agatha Christie plotting a hundred murders in scrappy exercise books, and learn how Bruce Chatwin unwittingly inspired the creation of the Moleskine. On the way we meet a host of cooks, kings, sailors, fishermen, musicians, engineers, politicians, adventurers and mathematicians, who all used their notebooks as a space for thinking and to shape the modern world.

Industry Reviews

'A restless, arresting new history of the notebook ... a fine book on a fabulous subject' - Daily Telegraph

'A different, fascinating, entertaining, witty approach to writing cultural history' - Irish Times

'A fascinating study of notebooks through history, ... beautifully written and a complete delight to dip in to or read from cover to cover' - Alexander McCall Smith

'With this fascinating exploration, Allen has written a very original, diverting and surprising history of a humble everyday object' - Saga

'Fluently and engagingly written' - Art Newspaper

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