 By far the greatest response came from readers of "The Observer" whose readers sent him 15,000 samples of their writing.In an article in that paper in March 1957, Piggott explained that he had been interested in the history of handwriting since he had begun to study calligraphy and that he wished to develop a "practical, everyday cursive" script to replace the civil service style then in use in Britain that was derived from Victorian copperplate writing but which tended to illegibility when written at speed.By gathering samples of handwriting, he hoped to develop a new style that would command widespread acceptance.