Words are like pillows: if put correctly they ease pain.
James Hillman
In 2008, aged 40, I started thinking more systematically about my job as a speechwriter.
A Speechwriters’ Notebook 2024
Do you have a taste for humorous and topical quotations?
Are you looking for a quirky gift for a professional writer or bookish person?
Do you want to get something inexpensive to thank a client?
If so, it’s time to purchase your copy of A Speechwriter’s Notebook 2024, Smart things you can put in a speech when inspiration runs dry, you’ve got no time, or the WI-FI is not working.
Why net zero speeches are hard to write, and often unbearable to listen to
The improv guru, Keith Johnstone, died earlier this year. I’ve been reading his book Improvisation and the Theatre.
In the first chapter he explains how our interactions are driven by competition for status. Moment by moment in personal interactions, we’re adjusting our status.
Come to the Brilliant Communicators’ Conference
I’ve persuaded American writer and presentation trainer John Bowe, to come over to the UK from New York. He’s going to deliver a masterclass on public speaking at a conference I’m organising in London in the autumn.
John is the author of the book, I Have Something To Say, which describes his conversion from hard-boiled journalist to tireless public speaking evangelist.
This conference I’m planning has been six years in the making. Since 2009, I have been organising conferences for professional speechwriters from around the world. The most recent one was hosted in Brasenose College, Oxford. We got 96 delegates.
My First Speechwriting Podcast with Rabbi Shais Taub
I live in Bournemouth. Philip Larkin ended up in Hull, I ended up in Bournemouth. It wasn’t really a conscious choice. But one aspect of this area has had a big influence on me.
If you’re brilliant at Latin and Greek in this country, they send you to Oxford or Cambridge. If you’re chronically addicted to heroin or alcohol, they send you to Bournemouth or Brighton.
Get your copy in time for Christmas!
A Speechwriter’s Notebook 2023
Outlandish ideas to get your audiences to look up from their phones, scratch their heads and never see the world in the same way again
Publisher: UK Speechwriters’ Guild
ISBN: 978-0956322661
This is my latest book, the fruit of many years of collecting useful material for my speeches. You can order the book now, and I’ll do my best to get it to you before Christmas.
My ten favourite insights into writing
1) Communication Requires Amplification
Good writing requires a lot of work. Advertising guru, Rory Sutherland, wrote: ‘The potency and meaningfulness of communication is in direct proportion to the costliness of its creation – the amount of pain, effort, talent (or failing that expensive celebrities or pricey TV airtime) consumed in its creation and distribution. This may be inefficient – but it’s what makes it work.’ Continue Reading
Why I spent £200 on a print I don’t like very much (and my wife hates)
I recently re-read Robert Cialdini’s book Pre-Suasion (Remember Cialdini? The Professor who wrote Influence) where he talks about designing our workspace with cues to support what we’re doing.
As he puts it: We have to become interior designers of our regular living spaces, furnish them with features that will send us unthinkingly in the directions we most want to go in those spaces.
Peter Sutherland’s Commonplace Book
My first client as a speechwriter was Peter Sutherland, when he was Chairman of BP. I was summoned to his office for a 15 minute interview. During that interview he rummaged in his desk drawer and got out his commonplace book.
How the urge to collect can become a powerful creative tool
ENGAGE BRAIN
– How to record, retrieve and remember what inspires you
(rather than settling for digital oblivion)
Date of Publication: 3 May 2022
Pages: 24
Publisher: UK Speechwriters’ Guild
ISBN: 9780956322654