About Being Left-handed

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31304, 25 February 1967, Page 4

About Being Left-handed

The Left-Handed Book. By Michael Barsley. Souvenir Press. 225 pp. and Index.

Michael Barsley, a celebrated humorous writer, is himself left-handed, and dedicates this book to his mother who allowed him to go bis sinistral way without protest or comment. The author has brought much erudition to bear on his subject which is the result of fourteen years of research. He explains the probable physical causes, the one-time religious significance of being left-handed and the influence on sporting, musical and artistic proclivities of what is a minority habit. Experts have reached no cast-iron conclusions about the origins of left-handness, several theories having been held about it since the days of Plato. Heredity, certain physical developments in the brain, and other reasons have been advanced, without a firm decision being reached. The fact remains that in early religious lore the left was regarded as the “unclean” hand and the history of such subjects as which craft and daemonic influence makes many references to it. It is generally recognised now (though not in Germany and some Eastern countries) that an obvious tendency to become sinistral in small children should not be corrected for fear of unfortunate psychological results, of which the commonest is stammering King George VI provided ample evidence of this fact, for he was forced as a child to write with his right hand, while later becoming a remarkably good tennis-player with his left; and those early disciplinary compulsions to stifle a natural tendency resulted in his developing the stammer which, in his exalted position, was such a personal martyrdom to him.

Leonardo da Vinci was ambidextrous, a condition he developed after suffering an injury to his right hand, and this facility in so great an artist was a great advantage to the world of art. Indeed, ambidexterity, where possible, should certainly be cultivated. In sport left-handedness can be an advantage, and Drobny, and the American baseball player, Babe Ruth, all reached their pre-eminence with some slight assistance from this fact; but Charlie Chaplin, whose first ambition was to be a professional violinist.

abandoned the idea because of the practical difficulty of thr instrument's formation, anc' the awkward relation of < left-handed player to right handed ones in an orchestra No particular conclusion ha; been reached about the con nexion between sinistral ten dencies and brain power, foi though among the intellectu ally handicapped a dispropor tionately large number of left handed children seem to be found, there is corresponding evidence that unusually bright youngsters can also develop a firm preference for using the left hand. But in everyday life as the author points out, the scales are weighted against the minority group. Kitchen and household utensils are nearly all made for righthanded use, as are secateurs and sickles for outdoor work, At table too the left-handed man would be happier to have his glass on his left, but can. not do so for fear of embarrassing the diner on that side whose glass would be too close to his own. Against these disadvantages it is cheering to note that the prize for being Britain’s Top Secretary was awarded to Miss Nancy Hall, who works for the National Coal Board, and is left-handed.

The book Is full of Biblical and historical, as well as modem. Instances of the problems besetting left-handed people, and makes fascinating reading.