When Philip Hensher realized that he didn't know what a close friend's handwriting looked like ("bold or crabbed, sloping or upright, italic or rounded, elegant or slapdash"), he felt that something essential was missing from their friendship. It dawned on him that having abandoned pen and paper for keyboards, we have lost one of the ways by which we come to recognize and know another person. People have written by hand for thousands of years― how, Hensher wondered, have they learned this skill, and what part has it played in their lives? The Missing Ink tells the story of this endangered art. Hensher introduces us to the nineteenth-century handwriting evangelists who traveled across America to convert the masses to the moral worth of copperplate script; he examines the role handwriting plays in the novels of Charles Dickens; he investigates the claims made by the practitioners of graphology that penmanship can reveal personality. But this is also a celebration of the physical act of writing: the treasured fountain pens, chewable ballpoints, and personal embellishments that we stand to lose. Hensher pays tribute to the warmth and personality of the handwritten love note, postcards sent home, and daily diary entries. With the teaching of handwriting now required in only five states and many expert typists barely able to hold a pen, the future of handwriting is in jeopardy. Or is it? Hugely entertaining, witty, and thought-provoking, The Missing Ink will inspire readers to pick up a pen and write. While there are no rigorous surveys tracking how many people write personal letters these days, it’s a safe bet that in this era of ubiquitous e-mail and text messaging, letter writing isn’t what it used to be. Partly to encourage readers to take up their pens and partly to indulge his curiosity, acclaimed British novelist Hensher (King of the Badgers, 2011) provides a droll and eclectic tour of handwriting history. Prompted by the realization that he had no idea what a close friend’s handwriting style looked like, Hensher interviewed friends and family about the topic, with amusing and illuminating results. A handful of chapters records their testimony, while the rest of the book is devoted to penmanship styles, famous letter writers, like Dickens and Hitler, and the pseudoscience of handwriting analysis. With his novelist’s gift for shimmering prose, Hensher may be just the man to inspire a public handwriting revival. If not, his work is a fitting tribute to a dying art that, with voice recognition software now approaching human proficiency, may be poised to disappear forever. --Carl Hays In The Missing Ink , Hensher unearths some of the sadistic, stylish, and occasionally sympathetic attempts to teach penmanship to generations of reluctant European and American children. —Jennifer Howard “Rediscover the joys of writing . . . Like a charming dinner guest, [Hensher] brims with fun facts, good humor and amusing reminiscences . . . [He] enlivens his musings about penmanship's demise with sharp insights and wry wit.” ― Abigail Meisel, The New York Times Book Review “An ode to a dying form: part lament, part obituary, part sentimental rallying cry . . . Eloquent . . . There remains something wonderful about receiving a letter that has been physically touched--actually crafted--by the hands of your correspondent.” ― Julia Turner, Slate “Lively.” ― Gregory Leon Miller, San Francisco Chronicle “We all communicate, of course (tweet tweet tweet, and yack yack yack on the mobile), but not by pen and ink. Does it matter? I didn't have to read 274 pages to be persuaded that it does, but I am very glad indeed that those pages were written and that I have read them. From this book, the wisest and wittiest argument imaginable for the preservation of handwriting, I have learnt so much, and by it have been so happily entertained, that I am compelled to recommend it to everyone.” ― Diana Athill, The Literary Review Philip Hensher is a columnist for The Independent , an arts critic for The Spectator , and one of Granta 's Best of Young British Novelists. He has written one collection of short stories and eight novels, including The Mulberry Empire , King of the Badgers , and The Northern Clemency , which was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. He lives in South London and Geneva.