Marion Richardson (1892–1946), a former student of Edward Johnston (1872–1944) and exponent of the italic revival, developed a set of cards for handwriting instruction called Dudley Writing Cards in the 1930s with advice from Johnston and Alfred Fairbank (1895–1982). She showed cursive letters with small connecting strokes that drew from Johnston’s exploration of the skeletal shapes of letterforms.
Pages from Writing & writing patterns, book 4. Richardson, M., 1974. Writing & writing patterns, book 4. University of London Press, London.
In 1935, she published Writing and Writing Patterns in 1935. This book builds on her observations about the importance of fine motor development in teaching handwriting. In it, handwriting instruction was accompanied by motor exercises based on patterns resulting from the repetition of six elementary forms related to tracing the alphabet.
Marion Richardson’s approach was quite successful, and at the end of the 20th century, it was one of the most widespread models used in England schools. In her book, Handwriting of the twentieth century, Rosemary Sassoon describes Richardson’s contributions to writing development one of the most significant.
