The Secrets of Your Handwriting: Your personality in your penmanship

by Allan Conway

Find out what your handwriting says about you with this fascinating exploration of the art of graphology. Discover the venerable art of graphology – how to interpret the curves, arcs and loops of the handwritten word to reveal the personality of the writer. This fascinating book is an exhaustive exploration of the art, taking each aspect of handwriting in turn – spacing, baseline, movement, speed, tension, pressure, size, slant, loops and form – to build up a reliable picture of the writer’s nature. It also explores the many uses of graphology in contemporary life – it has been used to uncover crime, in recruitment and even to help find true love! In addition, the handwriting of well-known historical figures is analysed, with intriguing results. Armed with this book you’ll be able to gain a unique insight into the personalities of your friends and family, and maybe even find out a little bit about yourself. Word 30,000

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology

224 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2016

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will preface this by saying I am no graphologist. It is not even a hobby, so much as a strong interest. I can only judge this book based on what I have read and learned elsewhere.

Graphology is a fascinating science, it stands to reason that this should be a fascinating read. Maybe if it had been the first book I'd read on the subject it would hold a bit of interest, but it wasn't. I would not recommend this book. I don't know anything about the author. Is he a professional graphologist, or just someone who dabbles? Really, this book reads like it is written by someone who did a little research on a topic they thought would make a marketable book. It's unfortunate, as at first glance it looks so well organized and appealing.

I have read other books on handwriting analysis that have made me want to stop and share new things I've learned about the science with every turn of the page. It is such a reputable study that it is allowed as evidence in court cases. This book briefly mentions that it is a science, never mentions it again, and never gives any further information as to the why certain handwriting characteristics tell us different things. Instead, it reads like something even beyond New Age, no backing, pulled out of thin air, no reasoning at all. There are examples in the book, though not one for every handwriting trait, which are most often described in very vague, subjective terms that I couldn't connect to an actual sample of writing even when it is given. And the samples themselves are very poor for actual analysis, as it seems many of the samples were often text copied, not free writing, and on most of the samples it can be seen that they were written on lined paper. Other books will tell you right up front that both of these situations will affect handwriting and will make it less useful for analysis, or at least more difficult.

There are also some points that actually completely contradict things I've read elsewhere. Now, it being a verified, studied, trialed science, this should not be the case. I want go with my gut here and say this is the book that is in the wrong, but I'll have give to verify that I'm not misremembering. In any case, I would still say this is not the place to look for solid graphology information, even in a hobby sense.

[Olivia Plasencia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book up for fun and because it was only two bucks. I found it more frustrating than insightful. Samples of writing were hard to compare truly when each person wrote whatever they wanted, I guess. At most times examples were not really given. After getting halfway through the book I felt that this is junk science. At times I felt I was getting the hang of this only to see that different markers used to identify people's personality by their writing seemed too broad and also very contradictory. Spacing, Movement and Speed and tension all felt like I was basically reading zodiac traits by the end. Also, the section where famous people have their signature "examined" was a joke. It was like a psychic telling you how your day was after you told them. More impressive would be the author looking at the famous person's writing and going into that cold. At one point the writer does claim to have identified a poison pen writer at a place of business but again it sounded like something anyone could do, because after looking at the letter they formed questions to ask about possible employees that fit the bill. Anyone could have done the same by reading the letter and paying attention to verb usage. It is a short read I will give you that, but again it just seems too vague

[Josefina · Rating 2 out of 5]

A nice book, but very, very basic, with repetitive information and little to no new data.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a pretty cool guide for handwriting analysis. It's very detailed and even provides examples and case studies. It's easy to read and can be read in one longer sitting or multiple short ones. It's interesting too that the writer chooses to analyze a few well known people's handwriting. It makes what he's speaking on more understandable. Browse through the book- it's worth a look.