"To write is to communicate. It's forging relationships with other people through writing." This book is a somewhat subjective, ("Anyone who writes a circle or a heart over their i's is a moron.") though thoroughly researched examination on the importance of actual handwriting -- making letters with a writing implement in hand. Hensher uses very understated, dry British wit as he looks at the evolution of teaching methods of handwriting,(Palmer, for one) the invention of the ball-point pen, the psuedo-science of graphology in so far as it proposes to have psychological insight into character traits, the political aspects of adopting certain styles (the Third Reich for example), and the economic driver to make handwriting faster and more efficient. Interspersed in this sweeping overview are actual interviews with individual (presumably friends and relations of the author) about their handwriting history and experiences. Very droll. He has a valid point about the importance of the hand-written word in a world where technology and automated communication prevail. Have to care about the topic and have an appreciation of understatement to make this a worthwhile read. ( )

An analysis of where handwriting has come from and where it is going today.
It would be a shame for the art of handwriting to disappear. It made me resolve to do more hand writing. ( )

This is a book i was looking forward to reading thinking it would be of a similar vein to [b:Just My Type: A Book about Fonts|7667461|Just My Type A Book about Fonts|Simon Garfield|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1307994993s/7667461.jpg|10270290] and [b:Paper: An Elegy|16104814|Paper An Elegy|Ian Sansom|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1356449834s/16104814.jpg|21916853]. In some ways it was, as Henshers enthusiasm for the subject is clear, but in other ways it was annoying.

The final two or three chapters on the Bic, and trying to purchase a particular fountain pen were great, but i didn't completely get the Witness chapters. And the footnotes were excessive in the extreme. If you have a foot note that goes over three pages, then surely that should have been part of the main text?

In all not bad, but as it promised so much it could have been so much better! ( )

There's a blurb on the book, saying the author is "like a charming dinner guest." If you think this guy's charming, then you must have grown up in a house of backstabbing, petty, whiny snobs. ( )

Reviewed together: The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting by Anne Trubek and The Missing Ink, the Lost Art of Handwriting (and Why It Still Matters) by Philip Henshaw, see
https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/04/07/the-history-and-uncertain-future-of-handwrit... ( )