The dark horse of the keyboard: Alistair Sooke traces the history of the ampersand. Alastair begins in Jermyn Street in London to speak to passers by about the ampersands on the shop signs that surround them. The ampersand had to fight for it's success against the Tironian Mark. Alastair goes to the Bodelian Library in Oxford to speak to Professor Dan Wakelin from the English Faculty. Prof Dan tells Alastair that from the 1170s to the early 1400s it was barely used as it was defeated by the Tironian mark, but was later revived to it's current success due to printing.
