Diary Handwriting

[David Orsam]

Theres also a different ‘f’ in the ‘college of music.’

Yes that "f" in "of" is quite interesting because of the loop at the top. It shows that sometimes she will put in a loop, sometimes not.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Yes, there is a little inconsistency there.

And perhaps it is me but, on a different issue, does Anne spell "reframing" as "refraiming" despite having spelt "framed" correctly earlier in the letter? If so, it does show that a spelling error can be made even when one knows how to spell a word.

I did notice that one David. Definitely an added ‘i’ in refraiming.

Theres also a different ‘f’ in the ‘college of music.’

[David Orsam]

David its also noticeable that Anne forms the letter ‘f’ in two ways. With the loop at the front in ‘for’ and ‘from’ and with the loop behind in ‘certificate’ and in the word ‘of’ in ‘pride of place.’

I thought that it might have something to do with the position of the letter within the word but it appears totally random. Loop at the front in the word ‘reframing,’ but loop at the back on ‘certificate.’

Yes, there is a little inconsistency there.

And perhaps it is me but, on a different issue, does Anne spell "reframing" as "refraiming" despite having spelt "framed" correctly earlier in the letter? If so, it does show that a spelling error can be made even when one knows how to spell a word.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Possibly the most unusual character formation by both the Diary author and Anne is the letter "f". They both write it like the letter "b".

You can see a couple of examples in the Diary on page 3 ("fly" and "from") and the word "fact" on page 31.

This is Anne writing "from".

David its also noticeable that Anne forms the letter ‘f’ in two ways. With the loop at the front in ‘for’ and ‘from’ and with the loop behind in ‘certificate’ and in the word ‘of’ in ‘pride of place.’

I thought that it might have something to do with the position of the letter within the word but it appears totally random. Loop at the front in the word ‘reframing,’ but loop at the back on ‘certificate.’

[David Orsam]

Just to add that most of the individual handwriting examples I posted came out rather larger than I was aiming for, as they didn't need to be quite that big. Hope that doesn't make it hard to do the comparisons.

[David Orsam]

Now this is rather interesting. The letter "i". It's fairly unusual in that it looks like the number 9.

The Diary author also writes it as a number nine but usually, although not always, adds a loop at the bottom.

You can compare with the word "if" on page 3 of the Diary and you can see a very plain looking "i" without a loop at the bottom on page 10 of the Diary and a loopy one on page 2.

It's a shame I can't post examples side by side from the Diary but as there are copyright issues involved you will need to do the comparison yourself I'm afraid.

One thing about the letter "i" or "I" in Anne's normal handwriting (in the correspondence I have seen) is that it looks rather different to the way it is written in the test sample provided for Keith Skinner in 1994. I don't make any point about this. Anne might have different ways of writing characters at different times but I would say that it would have made it difficult for someone like Sue Iremonger to make a comparison between Anne's normal handwriting and that of the Diary author.

[David Orsam]

Finally, this is an example of an "E" from Anne's marriage certificate. It has a little loop at the top which can be compared to the "E" in "England" on page 24 of the Diary.

[David Orsam]

This is the "G" in "Graham" from Anne's marriage certificate. It has a circular loop at the top, in the same way that the Diary author includes one in the word "God" on page 61 of the Diary.

[David Orsam]

Anne has a fairly unusual way of writing the "M" in "Mike".

To me, it looks like a little "n" next to a very large "n"

The Diary author does something similar when writing the name "Michael" on pages 2 and 10 of the Diary.

Not exactly the same by any means, but similar nonetheless.

[David Orsam]

I don't want to make too much of Anne's capital "A" other than that she writes it in the same form as lower case "a" (but larger).

The Diary author does frequently put a distinctive diagonal line through this letter, which Anne does not, but not always and you can compare Anne's "A" with the "A" in "Abberline" on page 30 although I don't suggest there is anything particular similar between the two character formations other than that they are not "A".

[David Orsam]

Is it just me or does Anne's "s" look like the letter "n"?

It's something the Diary author does too, see the word "shake" on page 8.

[David Orsam]

Both Anne and the Diary author share a similar characteristic when forming the letter "T".

The top left of the letter looks like a little "H".

True that the Diary author adds a loop at the bottom of the T but you can compare Anne's "T" in "Thats" with the authors "T" in Time on page 2 of the Diary.

[David Orsam]

Possibly the most unusual character formation by both the Diary author and Anne is the letter "f". They both write it like the letter "b".

You can see a couple of examples in the Diary on page 3 ("fly" and "from") and the word "fact" on page 31.

This is Anne writing "from".

[David Orsam]

Now this is rather interesting. The letter "i". It's fairly unusual in that it looks like the number 9.

The Diary author also writes it as a number nine but usually, although not always, adds a loop at the bottom.

You can compare with the word "if" on page 3 of the Diary and you can see a very plain looking "i" without a loop at the bottom on page 10 of the Diary and a loopy one on page 2.

It's a shame I can't post examples side by side from the Diary but as there are copyright issues involved you will need to do the comparison yourself I'm afraid.

[David Orsam]

One thing to notice about Anne's handwriting is that there is quite a long stroke over the letter "t" - which covers most of the word "the" in the example posted - albeit not quite as long as the Diary author's.

I should say that this is one thing that does appear in Anne's test sample provided to Keith Skinner in 1994.

I don't think this is particularly rare, although not everyone does it by any means, but I note it nevertheless.