Found my A5 nirvana at last

I don't know what it is about the A5 size as I've never properly settled down into using one. Here's my journey to where I am now:

1. Vintage pink Malden - returned as it was faulty, and I'd also realised that A5 is too large a size to have as my sole binder
2. Bronze Domino snake - stunning binder, but I sold it as I just wasn't using it and it wasn't a Malden
3. Wine zipped Holborn - swapped as I just didn't bond with it and I'm not really sure why (not a Malden and maybe too dark a colour for me at the time?)
4. Another vintage pink Malden - I thought maybe if it was a Malden I'd be 'cured', but I found it a bit too floppy in the larger size and the pink really wasn't me. Swapped for a ...
5. Red Amazona - oh yeah :)

I'm much more into red than pink colours, and this is a lovely bright and glossy shade. 

The secretarial pocket on the left is very handy for storing folded A4 sheets of paper and holds quite a bit. I haven't used the zip pocket or other full length one yet, but they're quite tight to get into. The A5 Amazona has 25mm rings, compared with the 30mm in the Malden, which I like as I never filled my vintage pink to its full capacity. It will happily have a notepad in the pocket on the right, even with the smaller rings. As you might be able to see here, it doesn't lie flat when empty but will do with the weight of my inserts.

Quite slim for an A5, and when I opened the package it immediately felt smaller than the Malden.

The Amazona's leather is more puffy and the pattern is more raised than on the Ascot. I wasn't initially sure about them, but I think this works well on the larger size binder.

The Ascot is probably closer in pattern to the Osterley in comparison.

And some more shots, just because I think they're stunning binders.

From my previous posts, you might have picked up that I'm a real Malden fan, but to my great surprise I no longer own any! I still adore them, but I'm just really enjoying the print on the Ascot and Amazona and can't imagine going back right now. I don't know about you, but I doubt I would have bought these Filofaxes as my first ones and it's taken me time (with the help of this community) to work out what I like.