Silver Edges, Tenderly Inscribed

I did not have a birthday this year. At the time I really did not feel up to it. However, you do not need to have a birthday to have presents given to you. Today I have been given a lovely, touching gift. It is simple, beautiful – a black leather notebook with silver edges, tenderly inscribed – and means the world to me. A wonderful sign of celebration and of faith in me by someone.

Writers need little black books. They need Moleskins and Staedlter 0.3 pigment liners. However it is the first time I have owned one that offers me protection against the ‘horrid statue’* I have to pass every time I go and buy the newspapers.

*For security reasons I cannot reveal which statue this is, but trust me, it is a ghastly piece of proto-Modernist filth which would look a lot better if it was smashed up and turned into a rock garden.