[copperplate] the handwriting of choice

Practise the lettering. It will become easier as you go on.

Nowhere is the dearth of appropriate values in modern life more visible than in handwriting. The almost manic rush of modern living plus the dire straits in which the education system finds itself, have conspired to all but eliminate the standard script which our parents used and which is now only taught in a handful of independent schools.

The internet hasn't helped either.

It's dismaying to hear and read people today call something 'calligraphy' which was, after all, just standard writing four and a half decades ago.

Here is a fragment from an interesting history of the writing form:

Copperplate evolved in the earliest part of the 18th century due to a need for an efficient commercial hand in England. The "secretary hand" (a cursive variety of Gothic minuscule), the "mixed hand", and the more elegant Italian cancellaresca testeggiata had given way to something plainer and more practical. Two varieties of a new "copperplate" style became common: "round hand," the bolder of the two, was considered appropriate for business use, and "Italian," a lighter and narrower form, was considered the ladies' hand.

There is no mystery to the writing.

Firstly, it needs a double ended nib [pictured]. Ballpoints are, quite frankly, an abomination and militate against decent writing.

The theory is that every time the nib is slightly pressed, the pointed ends come apart and the line is thick. As this is a progressive pressing and lightening, the effect is a thick line with graduated ends - pleasing to the eye.

All up strokes and flourishes are made by lessening the pressure on the nib, the ends come together and the line is therefore thinner until it finally peters out. This is the 'mystery of calligraphy' - no mystery at all. Ballpoints or any other form of pen which do not allow the thick/thin alternation are therefore anathema.

Felt tips can be all right in some situations.

So why isn't everyone writing this way?

1] It's not taught any more. In the 1970s, it was deemed too messy [children got ink on the hands], too difficult to learn - it took discipline, a word not in vogue in the 1970s.

2] A new form of writing, called 'cursive', was introduced. The theory went that it was traumatic to the child's mind to go from print letters to joined print letters then suddenly to copperplate. This was the era of phonics as well but that's another story.

3] The 'cursive' abomination, meant as a transitional form of writing until late childhood, actually became the norm and no one wanted to move up to the old script, beautiful as it was. Life was too short to write carefully and neatly. There were things to do, no time to pause. Thus the form almost died.

Interestingly, when I came over to the former Soviet Union, I taught some children the copperplate, expecting to be met with fierce resistance, as is the norm in the west. They took to it like ducks to water and it's true - the two styles are very similar, even if one is in Latin characters and the other in Cyrillic.

This is a fascinating history in itself.

So what's the point? Well it's not just for lovers of beauty in all things. It really does open doors for you. People see your handwritten note or signature and realize you had a good education, maybe even classical. You feel good in yourself as you see beauty flow from your pen and not just some scratchy spider scrawl.

And the good thing is that, with the refinements in the pens these days, the messiness has gone, the blotting paper and the whole paraphernalia is not needed and it's as easy as keeping a pen in your inside top pocket. It certainly impresses when you whip out this pen to append your signature to some document or other.

As for receiving a letter through the mail from someone who has taken the time to write to you this way, it gives a very warm glow, you'd possibly agree.