What is the best purchase you have ever made?
The “best” purchase is not necessarily the most expensive, the most beautiful or even the most frequently used. I would judge it by a combination of practical value, longevity, frequency of use, craftsmanship, emotional connection and value for money. The strongest purchases are those that quietly become part of one’s working life—objects so useful that, decades later, they remain exactly where they are needed.
By those criteria, my best purchases may not be one object but three variations on the same idea: stands that securely hold papers, files and books while I read, take notes and write.
The first is an orange metal book stand bought from Ryman, just off Oxford Street, in 1982. I was staying with my undergraduate girlfriend in West Hampstead, and she was distinctly judgemental about what I had paid for it. Yet here it is, forty-four years later, still on my desk. It now sits beside my computer screen; before that, it sat beside my typewriter. Few purchases can claim such continuous service.
The second is an oak book stand, a replica of those used in the seventeenth-century Duke Humfrey’s Library, part of Oxford’s Bodleian Library. I bought it in the late 1990s. It cost a great deal, but it has justified the expense. It is beautifully made, satisfying to look at and exceptionally useful for supporting large books, folders and files.
The third is out of shot: a five-foot wooden lectern bought at a flea market for £20. Now that I work standing at my desk, it performs much the same function as the other two, only on a larger scale.
Together, these three stands reveal what “best” means to me: not novelty, status or technological sophistication, but usefulness sustained over time. Each has adapted to changes in how I work—from typewriter to computer, from sitting to standing—while continuing to do one simple job exceptionally well.
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