Reports

ALAN CLEAVER “ The Demise of Handwriting and why it matters” 25th June

On 25 June Alan Clever came to talk to the group about the demise of handwriting in the digital age. Our members remembered Alan from his previous talk about Postal Walks and were delighted to see his finished book and to hear about its successful launch. Alan was talking to a very receptive audience who all remembered the good old days when cursive writing was taught in schools. He began by looking back in history to early writing when Monks used their writing to show their care for the subject matter by means of illustrations and beautiful calligraphy.
He moved through the years and showed us many examples of how people shared their personality with the recipient by means of illustrated envelopes and careful handwriting.
The format of the talk changed as our members became engrossed by the subject and it turned into a general discussion about handwriting in the 21st Century where emails and text messages have become the norm.
Alan asked us about the last time we either received or sent a handwritten letter and the answers were a reflection of our time. We discussed how difficult it is to read ‘joined up’ writing if you haven’t been taught how to write it and how this is seeing the death of regulated cursive and the emergence of randomly joined up printing.
Alan hadn’t come to criticise this change but to get us to reflect on it. He brought with him some beautiful examples of letters and envelopes that he has collected over the years and we really enjoyed his time with us.