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The Book of Tells (Peter Collett)[unlocked]

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THE BOOK OF TELLS<br />

<strong>of</strong> tearing into other people's flesh. Women sometimes<br />

threaten other people, either seriously or playfully, by<br />

baring their fingernails. <strong>The</strong>re's a very fine divide<br />

between grabbing an imaginary friend and threatening<br />

an imaginary friend with one's fingernails - it all comes<br />

down to a slight inward curl <strong>of</strong> the fingers which lines the<br />

fingernails up for attack.<br />

• CHOPPING. As the martial arts have shown, the outer<br />

edge <strong>of</strong> the hand can be used to chop and injure other<br />

people. Politicians who want to cut through an issue<br />

<strong>of</strong>ten use a downward chopping motion <strong>of</strong> the hand. <strong>The</strong><br />

Labour politician Tony Benn <strong>of</strong>ten does this. John Major<br />

also used this gesture when he was Prime Minister: when<br />

talking on a sensitive issue he would bring his hand<br />

down and to the side in a cutting motion to show that he<br />

wished to sweep issues and problems away. Major has<br />

always been a keen cricketer - it's possible therefore that<br />

what appears to be a dismissive, sweeping action <strong>of</strong> the<br />

hand is really a symbolic cricketing stroke which he uses<br />

to knock other people's ideas all the way to the boundary.<br />

Although Major was a consummate politician, he disliked<br />

the rough-and-tumble <strong>of</strong> parliamentary Question Time,<br />

especially when he was Prime Minister. This was evident<br />

from the 'flight reflex' that he exhibited at the dispatch<br />

box. Whenever he rose to answer a question, he would<br />

place his notebook on the dispatch box, and then address<br />

the house. But a fraction <strong>of</strong> a second before he'd<br />

completed his statement, he would begin to make tiny<br />

preparatory movements, like moving his feet or rearranging<br />

his notebook. Sometimes, as he was finishing<br />

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