The best 2019 planners and diaries
Get ahead of the game and start making dates with the best 2019 diaries and planners
Quirky designs: Papier 2019 Diary
These sturdy hardback diaries are works of art, and there's one for everyone. The 'Under the Sea' diary, adorned with Ariels, would make a great gift for the Disney princess in your life. If you've a friend who regularly finds herself running late, the 'Alice in Wonderland' diary would be a perfect present: the White Rabbit dashes across its cover clutching his pocket watch. There's even a diary covered in yoga poses, for anyone whose new year’s resolution is to find inner peace.
Price: £21.99
Size: 15.3cm x 21.5cm
Buy online
Minimal magic: Icon Diary by Present & Correct
If you’re the kind of person who prefers an overview to minute planning, check out the planners on offer at Present & Correct. Each volume is roughly the size of a passport, with a month-per-view design, so there’d be no excuse to leave your diary at home even if you’re travelling light.
Price: £6
Size: 9cm x 13cm
Buy online, or visit the heavenly store in Clerkenwell
More for your money: Art & Science Hobonichi planner
Stationery aficionados have been raving about Hobonichi for a while, and it's easy to see why: this page-a-day diary is light but sturdy, and features lovely little extras. Among other things, there’s a guide to different countries’ traditional sweets at the back of the planner. Who’d stare at their phone during the commute when they could be learning about halo-halo, the Philippines’ favourite dessert?
Price: £40
Size: 10.5 cm x 14.9cm
Buy online from Choosing Keeping, or feel just how thin those pages are at their lovely Covent Garden store
Pages of poetry: Faber & Faber Diary
2019 marks the Faber poetry list’s 90th birthday, making it a good year to become acquainted with some of the verses that have made the cut. Poems by everyone from Geoffrey Chaucer to Sylvia Plath, Christina Rossetti to Daljit Nagra, will punctuate your pages of appointments and to-do lists.
Price: £7.77
Size: 15.3cm x 21.4cm
Tactile textures: Aspinal’s Slim Pocket Diaries
Aspinal’s combines understated pages with the kind of bold covers that high-end stationers usually steer clear of. And it works so well.
Price: £45
Size: 9.5cm x 16.5 cm
Buy online, or test those textures at locations across London, including Covent Garden, St Pancras and Regent Street
A year in maps: The British Library’s Pocket Diary
They say you learn something new every day. If you want to make sure that’s the case in 2019, this slight planner might help. A beautiful addition to the pocket of anyone who’s into maps, manuscripts or history, every other page features a snapshot of the British Library’s impressive collection of cartographic material.
Price: £7.99
Size: 10.8cm x 14.6cm
Buy online, or compare some of the other 2019 diaries on offer at the British Library’s gift shop, a stone’s throw from St Pancras
All-round awesome: Papierniczeni’s Universal Planner
This diary, from Polish stationers Papierniczeni, is wonderfully versatile. Within it, you can choose whether to plan your life using an annual, monthly or weekly view, and there’s plenty of extra space at the back if you feel like a day needs a whole page of planning. Plus, the date’s left blank, so you can start this diary whenever you like.
Price: £24
Size: 15.5cm x 21cm
Buy online from Quill London, or decide which colour to go for with your own eyes at their store near Kings Cross
Best bargain buy: Muji Vinyl Cover Monthly Weekly Diary
For a selection of inexpensive planners—made from crisp white, high quality paper—head to your nearest Muji. Anyone with a penchant for grid paper or a preference for uncluttered pages will find something to their liking.
Price: £7.95
Size: 12.5cm x 17.6cm
Buy online, or at one of Muji’s many London stores
Kids at heart: Moleskine’s Limited Edition Planners
Stationery behemoth Moleskine has teamed up with creatives behind Harry Potter, Le Petit Prince and Peanuts to produce a quirky array of planners for 2019. Their annual departure from usually austere covers is combined with the intuitive layout and useful information that defines Moleskine products. So really, these planners are grown-ups in kids' trappings.
Price: £21.99
Size: 13cm x 21cm
Buy online, or in store on Regent Street or Oxford Street, or in Covent Garden
The height of luxury: The Portobello Diary by Smythson
The Portobello Diary's gilt-edged, light blue pages have an automatic calming effect on even the busiest schedules. It's like putting your phone screen on night mode. It doesn't come cheap, but surely the whole point of a diary is that you use it every day, so it’s worth investing? That’s what the little voice in my head tells me when I'm browsing the Smythson website, anyway.
Price: £180
Size: 21cm x 26cm
Buy online, or feel exactly how feather light those pages are in store on Sloane Street or Westbourne Grove, or at the original Smythson on Bond Street