We have listed some books and resources that could be helpful to adults wanting to improve their handwriting. The first book is the most comprehensive, but you might like to work from a copybook that uses a writing style that would suit you.
Improve Your Handwriting (Teach Yourself: Reference) (Paperback) by Rosemary Sassoon and G S Briem. Available from Waterstones and other suppliers. This is one of the Teach Yourself series published by Hodder and Stoughton and is a practical guide to improve handwriting that has been especially written for adults. It covers self-diagnosis, penhold, the particular needs of left-handers and the impediments caused by medical conditions. It does not attempt to impose a particular handwriting model, but offers alternatives and encourages readers to experiment and chose how best to improve their legibility and speed. Dr Sassoon is a handwriting consultant specialising in both medical and educational aspects of this skill.
Copybooks and other resources
The Handwriting Rescue Scheme Activity Book, published by Multisensory Learning. This is a copybook without child-centred illustrations and could be useful for older students and adults. It gives some information on pen hold etc, starts by teaching individual letter shapes and progresses to joined writing. The style is a continuous cursive, i.e. with entry strokes to the letters and looped descenders to letter g, y, j, etc. Sample pages can be viewed.
Handwriting Today by Andrew Brodie, published by Bloomsbury Publishing. Books 1 and 2 can be obtained from Amazon. These work books are aimed at secondary-aged students and could also be used by adults. They cover the process of writing with practice pages in a simple modern cursive.
The Old Fashioned Writing Book by Tom Barnard, published by Ward Lock. This is not readily available but may be found on Amazon. It covers the essential of writing areas with simple exercises to test and reinforce understanding. The style used is a simple modern cursive.
Better Handwriting for Adults by the National Adult Literacy Agency is a free pdf that provides extensive suggestions and exercises for developing unjoined writing.
How to Improve your Handwriting, an informative article by Cherrell Avery in the Guardian.
Courses in italic handwriting
West Dean College provides residential courses.
The Society for Italic Handwriting offers a wealth of information on this particular style.