When I had my own business, I learned to set a lot of store by handshakes. I spent a day in Athens once, negotiating a deal with an export agent. The negotiations went really well, better than I had hoped, the guy was helpful and easy to deal with. Then we shook hands; a slippery, feeble handshake. He turned out to be an absolute nightmare to pin down, and pretty untrustworthy.
The bookmaker Fred Done, owner of BetFred and the Tote, is an old school character in a business not generally known for the honesty of it’s participants. “Fred seals every bit of business with a handshake”, one of his competitors once told the Racing Post. “Shake hands with Fred on a deal, and to him that’s as binding as any written contract”.
