What a fabulous little book! Gives an excellent short history of western calligraphy/handwriting with tons of illustrations. I'm so glad I read it because I know have a better understanding of how the form of calligraphy I have already learned fits into the development of handwriting generally.
A short but great little overview on the history and different styles of Western calligraphy. Definitely in need of updates + diversity and I wouldn't lean on it as a sole point of reference, but if you're interested in calligraphy from England and the 14th + 15th centuries in a digestible prose, it's pretty good and not too heady. I also found the plates in the back to be really fun to look at and use as a future reference. Plenty of fascinating tidbits regarding the history of teaching penmanship and calligraphy, and why we learn to write in English the way we do.
This was one of the books from the random selection box I got from the Wigtown Book Festival last year and...yeah, not really my bag.
I do think the content could have been better laid out (rather than calling for a constant to-ing and fro-ing between the text in the front and the plates in the back, and hopping around between the plates (probably would have benefited from having more examples, so that no given plate would be doing double or triple duty).
This is a delightful, clear, lucid and erudite introduction and complete book of calligraphy. I have referred to it many times during my calligraphy days.