Human history, modern life and our psychology - all told through the story of how we use our hands

Throughout history, civilisations have been defined by the work of human hands- inventing tools, writing records, operating machinery, typing, texting, swiping. But beneath this known history is another, secret story- our hands are not the obedient servants that they seem to be. Through conscious and unconscious gesture, they reveal our deepest psychology, our weaknesses and obsessions, our personal history and our social conditioning.

The key to understanding everything around you - and everything within you - is staring you in the face. Using fascinating anecdotes and brilliant psychoanalytic research, from da Vinci to Dickens to Die Hard, Darian Leader reveals that there’s much more to your hands than meets the eye.