Episode 612 – Roland Allen

Virtual Memories Show

Virtual Memories Show 612:
Roland Allen

“Once I started looking into their history, I was surprised at how important notebooks had been in corners of history.”

With THE NOTEBOOK: A History of Thinking on Paper (Biblioasis), Roland Allen explores how the proliferation of paper & binding changed culture, business, and maybe the nature of human consciousness. We talk about how keeping a diary got him obsessed-ish with notebooks, how he found a narrative and protagonists as he delved into the history of notebooks, and what it means to see the notebook as a piece of technology or hardware. We get into their influence on art and the Renaissance (and the theory that sketchbooks allowed artists to move toward realism), how diaries created a new, private persona distinct from the public self, how he discovered a new reading for a line of Hamlet, and how digital options never manage to replace the paper notebook. We also discuss how Moleskine came to dominate the notebook market and how Bruce Chatwin’s The Songlines jumpstarted their craze, how Roland learned to switch off the “this isn’t interesting” filter in his own diaries, how writing this book made him a better notebooker, the way Dutch album amicorum (friendship books) served as a social media precursor, how our notebooks can outlive us (and his posthumous plans for his diaries), and a lot more. Give it a listen! And go read THE NOTEBOOK!

“Putting yourself down on the page is a skill you can learn, and get better at with practice. My diaries have gotten more interesting over the years and more satisfying to write.”

“The whole superpower of the notebook is memory.”

“Occasionally I daydream and imagine someone’s going to open a chest and discover Shakespeare’s account-books or something like that.”

Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes!

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About our Guest

Roland Allen lives in Brighton. He studied at Manchester University and works in book (and notebook) publishing. He has written books on bicycles and bread, has kept a diary for decades, and enjoys stationery a little too much.

Follow Roland on Instagram and Bluesky and browbeat him into posting more.

Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded at an undisclosed location on a pair of Blue enCORE 200 microphones feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4 digital recorder & interface. I recorded the intro and outro on a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photos of Roland by others; selfie & his notebooks pic by me. It’s on my instagram.