Graphologists analyze historical handwriting

LONDON, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Graphologists have reportedly concluded Charles Dickens was arrogant, Winston Churchill was pigheaded and Karl Marx refused to listen during an argument.

The graphologists -- experts in interpreting handwriting -- exhibited various documents written by politicians, monarchs and philosophers from documents exhibited by The National Archives in London, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

"All handwriting is a compromise between speed of thought and slowness of the hand and it is how individuals address this compromise by reinterpreting the rules of writing that provides the most fruitful grounds for analysis," Diane Simpson, a handwriting consultant who researched The National Archive exhibit, told the Telegraph.

Charles Dickens, the 19th century author of "David Copperfield" displayed his self-importance with a large signature he underlined with a flourish.

Karl Marx, who co-wrote The Communist Manifesto in 1848, had a tendency to run words together -- evidence of his determination to go his own way. And the experts said Churchill's small, hasty script demonstrates the former British prime minister's willfulness and determination not to live by the rules.