(Click image to view on Amazon for US members.)
Last year I got the book
Kalligraphie: 24 Lektionen für Einsteiger from Veiko Kespersaks. There is an english equivalent - click image above.
This is one of the best books I own.
Veiko Kespersaks is a leading Scandinavian calligraphy specialist and lettering designer based in London. He has gained an international reputation as one of the most skilled lettering artists and teachers currently working in the field.
Beginners in the exacting art of calligraphy will learn 15 alphabets, letter-by-letter and stroke-by-stroke, as they progress through this carefully structured series of 24 one-hour lessons. Special exercises are designed to help them build their speed and confidence as they reproduce a variety of calligraphy styles with accuracy and consistency. The author advises on the importance of practicing newly learned skills at the end of each lesson before going on to a new lesson and new challenges. The book's 24 lessons include a series of projects that will enable student calligraphers to produce professional looking results. The projects include greeting cards, invitations, wall hangings, place settings, and many others. More than 350 full-color how-to illustrations present step-by-step instructions for mastering each alphabet. An opening lesson introduces students to the standard calligraphy tools--pens, inks, and papers.
My favorite chapters are (16) copperplate minuscules, (17) copperplate majuscules, (19) flourished copperplate, (21) Spencerian minuscueles, (22) Spencerian majuscules and (23) flourished Spencerian - and this in a german translated book!