The original book – Poetry Changes Lives – was inspired by the author’s commonplace book – that he was given at school. He has used it ever since, to record favourite poems, sayings and pieces of writings he particularly liked at the time. It is now very full, and a source of great pleasure and inspiration as well as a mine of information. He refers to it often when writing articles or sourcing material for creative writing workshops. Chris Burn, the author wants to encourage as many people as possible to share his experience and has produced a Commonplace Book of his own, in various formats, which is now available on Amazon. It makes a great present !

Commonplace Books are intended to last a lifetime so they need to be strong, in hardback form.

The PCL Commonplace Classic Version contains 150 pages with a short history of the Commonplace Book and a section of pages with line numbering at the end, where users can reference their content to particular pages.

The PCL Commonplace Notebook Version contains 100 pages with a history of the Commonplace Book and a tabular content referencing page at the end. Dimensions 6 x 9 inches.

There’s a choice of  covers – Flowers,     Honeybees and Vintage 

Commonplace Books were once highly popular and people like Queen Victoria and countless writers and prominent people used them, almost as a matter of course. Even Napoleon Bonaparte had one. The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius had one too. They’re a great place for reference, and returning to for enjoyment – to read that favourite poem that you just cant quite remember how it ends.

Chris does a daily reading from Poetry changes Lives on TikTok.com/@burnpoet 

He believes that everyone should have a Commonplace Book regardless of age or background, and why not? They can only be an influence for good.