The writing of Gordon Brown
The quality of Gordon Brown's handwriting and spelling has been a , following the letter of condolence he sent to Jacqui Janes whose son was killed in Afghanistan.
His writing is adversely affected by his poor eyesight, which stems from the childhood rugby injury that left him blind in one eye. But how much has it changed over the decades?
It's taken me a little time to search through the collection of documents the 91Èȱ¬ obtained under freedom of information from Edinburgh University about the period Mr Brown was Rector there in the 1970s.
He was elected to this post while a student, and .
But here is an example of what his writing was like 35 years ago. This was in his early 20s, after he had sustained the rugby injury but before what may have been further deterioration in his sight.
It's neater than , and in a thinner pen than the thick felt one he now uses.
But the "i"s are not dotted, several of the characters are written unclearly or merged with their neighbours, and he spells "sincerely" wrong - one word that he did get right in his message to Mrs Janes.
And what is he saying in this letter? He's telling the university authorities that as he lacks proper secretarial help he can't submit the paper he's been working on "in a readily presentable form".
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