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A Left-Handed Man In A Right-Handed World
Being a leftie is much harder than people think — which is why Keith Milsom started International Left Handers Day (August 13).
Keith Milsom is a left-handed man in a right-handed world. This is much harder than unthinking right-handers like me realise, which is why he started International Left-Handers Day (August 13).
Keith’s Dad, another leftie, took over a shop in London’s West End called Anything Left-handed, which sold a limited range of items back in the 1970s. ‘I think the original catalogue had 20–30 products in it,’ he says. ‘A lot were variations on a theme. So things like scissors were our best selling product. We would stock lots of different types, from nail scissors to wallpaper scissors.’
I’m expecting Keith to tell me how the left-handed product market took off since he took over, and how lefties are grateful the world over for businesses like his. But the story he has to tell is of a world that has largely ignored the easily addressable requirements of a very significant minority.
Problems with pens and scissors
‘Roughly, 13% of the population are left-handed. But of those lefthanders, 90% of them have not realised that there are left-handed versions…
