Another Mulberry

Having bought an A5 Mulberry planner from eBay a while ago I have since bought another (also from eBay).

Why??

Because it was beautiful.

Because the hole spacing is the same as in a personal filofax, which means I can print my own stuff and use my Rapesco punch, rather than the sorry bit of rubbish that filofax produces. Win, win in my book!

I had originally intended to write about my new planner and do a poll as to which A5 organiser should get used at work – the first Mulberry or the new one – but since the new one arrived I have fallen in love with it and there is no way on earth that thing is going into work!

Why do I love it? Let me count the ways… I do indeed love it to the depth and breadth and height…

Let me walk you through it.

Front cover

It’s a very understated cover – none of the crocodile leather style here – just smooth brown leather, with the Mulberry tree in the bottom corner. It has the double popper (why don’t all planners have this??) and has contrast stitching. As those of you who read the review of my Holborn will know, I didn’t like the contrast stitching on that and toned it all down with leather polish. This one either started out with less contrast-y contrast stitching, or it has grubbied down to being less stand-out, but either way, I like it.

Inside

Inside, it is almost all leather, unlike the first Mulberry I bought which had a tartan lining. The full-height pocket  on the inside left cover is cloth-lined, but the others are all leather. The largest pocket is also completely straight-edged, unlike the other Mulberry. There is no Made in England tag either (so was it made somewhere else?). The ring mechanism is much smoother on this one. (Newer? Better looked after?)

It came with a load of paper (cream lined and blue plain). Far better quality than filofax (but probably umpteen times the price…). I’ve yet to do a fountain pen test on it, but I’m hopeful!

Back inside cover

The back inside cover has a zipped, gusseted pocket (cloth-lined) and a full-height pocket behind. Again, the pocket is straight-edged and again it is lined with cloth. The pen loop is not elasticated but is bigger than the filofax ones (not difficult – in most of my filofaxes I am struggling to get even a very slim pen in!).

I know that Mulberry are discontinuing the planners (though they promise to make the inserts for about 10 years). They are mad. Don’t they realise that they are the best of both worlds – superb quality planners with a hole-spacing that makes producing your own inserts a cinch? If I had discovered these size organisers before, I would probably have never bought an A5 filofax.

There. I said it out loud.

What do people think of my new family member? I will blog about what it’s getting used for soon…