As I do every year I have been hunting for a diary for next year.

And before you say anything, no it isn’t too early! I already have a number of dates fixed through to the end of next year, with the need to fix further dates looming.

And as every year I am almost unable to find what I want, which is:

• Slim diary (ie. approx 15cm x 8cms – big enough to write in; small enough to carry)
• just a full 12 months, ie. January to December
• portrait format
• week to a view
• week beginning on a Monday
• page layout preferably: left page: Monday-Friday, right page: Saturday/Sunday/notes. But I will accept Monday-Thursday vs Friday-Sunday/notes.
• no rules within the days
• decent page design/use of fonts
• online illustration of the page layout
• available to buy online (to get a choice)
• not out-of-the-way expensive; no I’m not paying upwards of £20!

So something very like this:

I do not want/need:

• a hard, case-bound, leather or other fancy cover (but can compromise here)
• something that starts in mid-year, like for the academic year
• pretty decoration, Disney characters, etc. on the cover
• ruled pages or appointment times
• artwork interleaved with the diary pages
• excess pages of front-matter and back-matter (eg. world maps, public holidays in every country, conversion tables, travel information) although a next year planner and a handful of pages for notes is useful
• elastic or magnetic closure
• integrated pen/pencil

As every year what I want is almost as scarce as hen’s teeth – certainly amongst the more quality offerings. In fact they are even more scarce this year then before.

I have only ever seen two examples of my preferred page layout: one last year (expensive, bulky and inappropriate for me) and another this year (full of annoying, irrelevant, twee cartoons). Why can no-one do a Monday-Friday vs. Saturday/Sunday/notes layout? I know not everyone has their weekend on Saturday/Sunday, but many people still do and it seems to me this would be a logical layout.

So who provides what?
Own brand (eg. Ryman, WH Smith) products almost invariably have ruled pages and/or wrong page layout.
Organisations (eg. RHS, National Trust, charities). Usually have hard covers. Contents are interspersed with images which (a) get in the way and (b) increase size/weight. Often expensive too.
Tallon (who appear to make most of the cheap offerings). Cheap and insubstantial – at least when I last handled one. Poor, clunky, design.
Collins. Hardly ever provide illustrations of the page layout, and when they do the pages are inevitably ruled. Often too many extraneous information pages.
Letts. Used to be good but are less so in recent years. They provide increasingly few illustrations of contents. And increasingly few unruled options. Again, often too many extraneous information pages. And to cap it all this year they seem to have decided that the week begins on Sunday (in contravention of the ISO date standard).
Moleskine. I like Moleskine notebooks and always carry one. But their diaries fail. I tried one a few years back and found they’re too chunky when you have a notebook as well. They’re the wrong size (for me), now always seem to be ruled, and are on the more expensive side.
Caspari. They’re American and less easily found here, but from experience of the last few years they’re definitely good quality. They do a range with plain-ish (“snakeskin” pattern) soft-ish covers and another range with case-bound floral design covers (actually quite attractive). But do they illustrate the interior? No, never. I’ve used them for the last several years and I know they’ve been what I want; but having been caught out by Letts’ “Sunday start” I want to check the page layout. I had to email them to ask and (to my surprise) got a response within a day showing exactly what I want. They also use quality cream paper.

So I went and ordered a Caspari diary via Amazon, though there are other online suppliers.

Am I being picky? Yes. But I don’t see why I should have to use something I find uncomfortable and is not what I want. Nor do I see why I should buy something where I can’t see the layout; why can suppliers not provide images – it’s not difficult or expensive?

So what’s wrong with using your smartphone as your diary? I don’t find this comfortable. I’ve tried it on many occasions over the years, starting with a Palm Pilot. I still don’t find it comfortable and I have always had problems getting it to sync successfully with my PC-based diary (which is actually my master diary). A paper and pencil diary, as my mobile copy, works best for me.

So more time wasted again this year hunting what I want.

Well there it is. That’s my experience. As with all such things YMMV.