That row in Poland about my speechwriting support for former foreign Minister Radek Sikorski rumbles on inconclusively. See eg here (where they impertinently add a year to my age) and here. Excellent that Hungarians are following this saga with keen interest. And Czech that! Here are some extended thoughts from me about […]
At last. My new ebook Speechwriting for Leaders is out. Hurrah. General blurb and a link for international readers here. UK folk can (and must) buy it through Amazon here. Meanwhile over in Poland – as if by magic – a vivid row has erupted over the fact that I […]
I’ve been writing my new piece for PunditWire on Vladimir Putin’s long State of the Nation speech. I’ll link to it when it goes up. The speech was a full 1500 words longer in the English version, showing how the Russian language is good at using endings of words to […]
The magnificent, consistently funny blaxploitation spoof movie Black Dynamite is an unexpected source of sophisticated public speaking insight. The hero of the film is Black Dynamite himself, a laconic unstoppable African-American kung fu master who is enraged when hard drugs even get into the orphanage – yes, the orphanage – […]
Back from a lively session of specialist media training, featuring a no-holds-barred account of my own encounters with the media down the decades. Highlights included: my disastrous exchange with Peter Fabricius in South Africa on the day Mrs Thatcher resigned my first live broadcast on a global news network – […]
I haven’t ever published here before the full text of my legendary Chinese Alarm-Clock email about the then EU Budget negotiations that was leaked in late 2005 by someone senior (in the Treasury?) to the Sunday Times and caused a vast furore in Poland. It was a spoof speaking note […]
It turns out that there are all sorts of unexpected things that create panic or unease in people. Many of them have fancy scientific names: Fear of buttons Koumpounophobia Fear of doorknobs […]
UPDATE The key zero-zero soundbite in this speech (below) is already causing controversy for being, how best to put this, simply wrong. Ed Miliband has been quick to put out a subtly different version to try to fix the mess! But the original tendentious version is still out there proudly on […]
This week I have been rummaging around in my memory to find examples of where I did some good media interviews, and where things went awry for some reason or another. As if by magic, one high-profile but short-lived mess returned to my life today. I find South African journalist Peter […]
There I was, over in Geneva at a top international organisation watching officials there make short presentations to improve their public speaking skills. It was notable that some of them (not least those with a French accent) began in a deadening way by breaking down the question posed and defining […]
