The Art of Holding Hands

Holding hand is an innocent pastime you'd have thought.

"If someone really loves me and is prepared to be seen walking down the street holding hands with me - that's wonderful!"

Apart from the feelings, what about the theory?

"Men hold hands with a woman with their hand round facing backwards, and a woman holds hands with her palm facing forward. But ... when a woman takes a child's hand, she does so with her hand facing backwards. When does someone know that they have to take a hand the other way round?"

Age is also a factor - with early adolescence a watershed. Where hand-holding was useful for playground games, being lead across roads, or forming monstrously long crocodiles, as the teenage spots appear, it takes on a new, romantic, meaning.

"If I was with anybody and they went for the full interlocking fingers hand-hold, I think that would have to be the end of it. And once, when it became clear I was going to have to hold hands, I just grabbed the back of this girl's hand, in a nice firm masterful grip - that way you can hold someone's hand without holding hands..."

Three questions you can ask about yourself.
1. What do you think the way you hold hands says about you?
2. Has hand-holding affected an important relationship? How?
3. Whose hand do you fantasize about holding?