Reginald Piggott

In February 1957,[2] eleven newspapers and journals published a letter from Reginald Piggott of 10 Finlay Drive, Dennistoun, Glasgow, in which he requested samples of handwriting.

In an article in that paper in March 1957, Piggott explained that he had been interested in the history of handwriting since he had begun to study calligraphy and that he wished to develop a "practical, everyday cursive" script to replace the civil service style then in use in Britain that was derived from Victorian copperplate writing but which tended to illegibility when written at speed.

He went on to discuss the beauty of italic script, which he used in his own writing, and the unsuitability of the ball point pen to produce it before concluding that once his research was complete "and it is certain that the new style is near perfect", then it could be widely adopted, leading to a great improvement in the handwriting of the nation.

[4][5] He analysed the results of his survey according to multiple characteristics including sex, age and occupation, and concluded with a chapter outlining a plan for better modern writing using a form of italic script.

He prepared the maps for The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain (1984) and with his wife Marjorie for volumes of Nikolaus Pevsner's The Buildings of England.