THE NOTEBOOK

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