The Handshake: A Gripping History

Product Description A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR'It's a little book of wonder, it's fantastic' Chris Evans'A fabulously sparky, wide-ranging and horizon-broadening little study ... joyously unboring' Sunday TimesFriends do it, strangers do it and so do chimpanzees - and it's not just deeply embedded in our history and culture, it may even be written in our DNA. The humble handshake, it turns out, has a rich and surprising history.So let's join palaeoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi as she embarks on a funny and fascinating voyage of discovery - from the handshake's origins (at least seven million years ago) all the way to its sudden disappearance in March 2020. Drawing on new research, anthropological insights and first-hand experience, she'll reveal how this most friendly of gestures has played a role in everything from meetings with uncontacted tribes to political assassinations - and what it tells us about the enduring power of human contact.Because the story of the handshake ... is far from over. Review Al-Shamahi's beguiling book has a more general claim to attention than merely being an account of the crisis in manners that Covid has made ... cheerful, witty and well-researched. -- Stephen Bayley ― Spectator It's a little book of wonder, it's fantastic -- Chris Evans A fabulously sparky, wide-ranging and horizon-broadening little study ... joyously unboring ― Sunday Times Having not particularly missed shaking hands over the past year, I ended this very engaging little book so desperate to get started again that I'm in danger of becoming a super-spreader. ― Telegraph [Ella Al-Shamahi] makes a convincing argument that in the not-so-distant future we will once again be clasping the clammy, germ-ridden paws of near-strangers. I can't wait. ― Daily Mail Brisk, quirky and good-humoured ― The Business Post Book Description This quirky and engaging history reveals the secrets of one of our most ancient social gestures About the Author Ella Al-Shamahi is a National Geographic Explorer, paleoanthropologist, evolutionary biologist and stand-up comic. She specialises in Neanderthals, caves and expeditions in hostile, disputed and unstable territories. She is a TV presenter, a TED 2019 speaker and has taken 4 shows up to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She has degrees in Genetics, Taxonomy and Biodiversity and is undertaking her PhD in Palaeoanthropology.