IN THE 1920s Henry Grunfeld, the co-founder of SG Warburg, discovered that someone was helping themselves to the petty cash at his family firm in Germany. He enlisted the help of a handwriting expert, who promptly identified the culprit.

Graphologists insist that they can tell whether someone is a liar, an alcoholic or a crook, just by looking at their handwriting.

Siegmund Warburg shared Grunfeld’s interest and formalised it when the pair created SG Warburg in London in 1946. The bank used graphology for assessing job candidates until the mid-1990s. Applicants had to submit samples of handwriting as the final step before being accepted for a position.

Grunfeld remained convinced of the merits of graphology until his death in 1999 at the age of 95. “There is not one case in 60 years where the graphologist has said something that turns out to be wrong,” he told an interviewer. “The practice is regarded as odd in Britain but it’s widespread in Germany, Switzerland and France.”

Merrill Lynch and Lazards have both resorted to graphology. It has been used by Leopold Joseph, the private bank, and Hiscox, the Lloyd’s underwriter. Robert Hiscox, founder of the eponymous firm, has described handwriting analysis as “an incredibly accurate judge of a person’s character”.

Baring Securities tried it in the early 1990s. Emma Bache, a graphologist used by Barings, likes to think that she would have detected something amiss with Nick Leeson, the Singapore-based rogue trader. Sadly, she never got the chance to inspect his handwriting. Bache, 39, is one of about 100 graphologists in the UK. She is regularly used by firms seeking a different “take” on whether someone will make a good employee or is management material. Few firms admit to using graphologists, perhaps fearing ridicule, but it is a craft that has won a loyal following.

A number of universities in Europe offer courses in graphology, typically as an adjunct to psychology.

Bache, married to a photographer, and with two young children, often finds herself cast as a roving entertainer at dinner parties. But there is a serious side to her work. She carries out assessments for firms and companies and has analysed celebrities including Sting, Brian Ferry and Sir Richard Branson.

Sir Richard used to employ graphologists on his Virgin Atlantic 747s. His handwriting became a talking point during one of the most hard-fought legal cases of the 1990s — the High Court libel clash with Guy Snowden, co-founder of GTech, the American lottery supplier.

Sir Richard claimed that Snowden tried to bribe him to stay out of the race for the UK lottery licence. The Virgin tycoon recorded the incident in his notebook and the notes featured in the trial. Sir Richard duly emerged victorious.

Bache says of Sir Richard: “As soon as I saw his handwriting, I saw someone steeped in success. He’s completely dogged in his determination to get to the top and completely unyielding. He’s unbending in his convictions.”

Bache has inspected the handwriting of Monica Lewinsky, sometime friend of President Clinton. Her appraisal read: “Ambitious and selfcentred but needs the approval of other people. Very intuitive. Can be calculating when dealing with individuals. Not obviously strong on charm but determined to get what she wants and stubborn with it. A dangerous adversary.”

Bache learnt her craft in the Eighties, taking a three-year course in graphology. The syllabus broke down into technical analysis, psychology and applied graphology.

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