May 2012 | Volume 09
The Speechwriter
Newsletter of the UK Speechwriters' Guild
Welcome
Welcome to the ninth edition
of The Speechwriter newsletter.
The purpose of this publication is
to circulate examples of excellent
speeches to members of the UK
Speechwriters’ Guild. We do this
by picking out openings, closings,
one-liners and quotations and
other topical extracts from
newspapers and the internet to
identify techniques, stimulate
your imagination and provide
models which you can emulate.
This newsletter appears
quarterly and is available to
anyone who is a Standard
Member of the UK Speechwriters’
Guild or the European
Speechwriter Network.
Contribute
We need your speeches. Most
of the examples in this edition are
taken from the Americans.
We want to raise standards in
the UK. Please send examples of
speeches to:
8 info@ukspeechwritersguild.co.uk
W W W. U K S P E E C H W R I T E R S G U I L D . C O . U K
EUROPEAN
incorporating
SPEECHWRITER
NETWORK
MASTERCLASS by James E Lukaszewski
I n the July 1997 an American
public relations expert called
James E Lukaszewski made a speech
in Cleveland, USA, titled: ‘Becoming a
Verbal Visionary’.
He said that the dominant force
in decision making is verbal power –
talking. A verbal visionary is someone
able to move people through speech
power.
One powerful habit of visionary
communication is to say less but
make it more important; to write less
but make it sayable and listenable.
So how do you become a verbal
visionary? Ask yourself:
What do you believe? Even Write it down. Say it out loud.
though what you believe rarely
changes, write it down. Say it out Benjamin Franklin lived by what
loud. he referred to as 13 virtues. He kept
a little book with him for more than
Who are you? Say it out loud. 50 years. Each of the 13 virtues was
Write it down. printed on a separate page. Each day
he evaluated his performance; every
What are your personal limits? week he chose one virtue to focus
What are the things you can’t do and work on for that week.
and won’t do? Set those limits. Write
them down. He read it, worked on it, and lived
it. His 13 virtues were temperance,
What are your aspirations? Who, silence, order, resolution, frugality,
what, where do you want to be? industry, sincerity, justice,
Write them down. moderation, cleanliness, tranquility
chastity, and humility.
What are your principles? What
are the parameters of your life? Write It might be useful for you to
them down.
consider using Franklin’s approach.
A verbal visionary lives and works his
What is your destiny? Do you or her principles, values, aspirations,
have an inner sense of where you are and vision every day.
going?
• INFO@UKSPEECHWRITERSGUILD.CO.UK
The Speechwriter May 2012 | Volume 09 2

Newsletter of The UK Speechwriters’ Guild

BOOK REVIEWS don’t need slides so much as a

subsidiary function, and he offers
help finding one.

He’s brilliant, too, on finding

the speech’s topic. “Try writing the
opposite of what you have written,”
he suggests. “If it makes sense, you
have a credible topic.” These chapters
alone are worth the price of the
book.

Given this evident good sense, it’s

The Art of Speeches
and Presentations:
The Secrets of Making
People Remember What
You Say
By Philip Collins
Published by John Wiley and Sons
(206 pages) ISBN 9780470711842,
£14.99
Tony Blair’s former speechwriter
is on a mission. Many speakers worry
about how they will perform, he
says, “but they do not worry enough
about writing the speech in the first
place.”
The point’s well made. Some
write speeches; some write speeches
for others; and some present.
Presenters – by definition – tend
to write nothing but slides. Collins
wants to help all three groups find
better words. Tall order.
He’s at his best when he focuses
on the speech itself. He understands
that classical rhetoric says little about
explanation, and seeks to redress the
balance. Informative presentations
a pity the chapter on language offers
so little detailed guidance. We’re
told to read Orwell (good advice
but hardly groundbreaking), and to
avoid clichés (his dislike of ‘proactive’
seems harsh). We’re offered a four-
page anecdote that may or may not
be about Henry Kissinger. We need
more.
Collins ends by suggesting that
“profound public speech has become
more difficult than ever before.” But
he still believes in the moral force of
rhetoric. He’s amazed that so many
corporate leaders don’t seem to care
about being dull and unclear. “They
should care, because to speak poorly
in public is a bad thing to do in itself.”
He’s echoing Quintilian, who defined
rhetoric as ‘a good man speaking
well’. And he’s right.
Microstyle
By Christopher Johnson
Published by Norton and Co,
2011 (246 pages) ISBN-13: 978-
0393077407, £14.99
Microstyle is the style of the
micromessage: the headline, the
slogan, the tweet. Big Style has
governed formal writing since the
advent of printing. Microstyle is
really the old oral style of proverbs,
aphorisms and epigrams. But with
electronic media and the attention
economy, microstyle has found a
new lease of life.
Big Style generates style guides;
microstyle, says Johnson, needs
a field guide. We’d love language
more, he says, if we shifted our
linguistic focus from judgement
and insecurity to curiosity and
appreciation. “I wrote this book,” he
writes, “to let you observe words in
the wild through a linguist’s eyes.”
Johnson – both an academic and a
verbal branding consultant – mixes
poetics and relevance theory with
close analysis of six-word stories,
film titles and political slogans.
The combination is sometimes
uneasy, but it means we get
remarkable insights. (I particularly
like cranberry morphemes.) In four
sections – dealing with meaning,
sound, structure and social context
– Johnson shows how microstyle
changes the relationship between
writer and reader.
The writer’s task is to grab the
reader’s attention; readers, in turn,
contribute wit and context to fill
micromessages with meaning.
Microstyle emerges from
conversation and, at its best, evokes
it. Johnson is a prophet of what
Walter Ong called secondary orality.
His book is a serious contribution
to this new rhetoric, and it fulfils its
promise as a field guide. You’ll see –
and use – language differently after
reading it.
Alan Barker

W W W. U K S P E E C H W R I T E R S G U I L D . C O . U K • INFO@UKSPEECHWRITERSGUILD.CO.UK
The Speechwriter May 2012 | Volume 09
Newsletter of The UK Speechwriters’ Guild
THE VERBLESS SPEECH
I n the internet age, we can often
can read a speech, free from any
‘embargo’, before it’s actually been
given.
One thing that struck me about
it was that there were rather a lot
of sequences without any verbs, a
practice pioneered in some of Tony
Blair’s early leader’s speeches to the
Labour Party Conference. But I’m no
more convinced by it now than I was
then.
Reading Miliband’s forthcoming
speech also reminded me that
verblessness is not something I
recommend in my speechwriting
courses either.
It also made me realise that
I’m not quite sure why I don’t and
wonder whether I should.
Maybe it’s because all these
verbless phrases and isolated
participles come across as
disembodied lists that make it sound
like the speaker’s reading out the
blobs/bullet points on a PowerPoint
slide.
Or maybe I’m just an old fogey
who’s too preoccupied with the
conventions of grammar to have
W W W. U K S P E E C H W R I T E R S G U I L D . C O . U K
by Max Atkinson
noticed that the language of public
speaking has changed.
If it has, I’d welcome advice on
whether you think it’s a change for
the better.
In the following sequences from
the speech, the few sentences with
verbs in them are singled out in
italics:
Nobody will be in any doubt that
change is necessary for our country.
Unemployment rising.
1 million young people out of work.
Living standards squeezed for all
but a few at the top.
Irresponsibility still being rewarded
in huge pay rises and bank bonuses.
And there are problems that go
beyond one government.
Long hours.
Wages not going up.
Costs rising.
Strains on families.
Worries about the future.
An economy not working for
working people.
I have changed where we stand.
Equality of sacrifice and fairness of
reward matter.
To me.
To Labour.
To Britain.
For too many years, some of the
most powerful in society thought
no-one could stand up to them even
if they were ripping people off.
Energy companies.
Train companies.
Banks.
Even media companies.
I have changed where we stand.
No company is too powerful to
challenge.
Standing with people in tough times
is what counts.
To me.
To Labour.
To Britain.
• INFO@UKSPEECHWRITERSGUILD.CO.UK
3
That we are the party for the
tougher times not just the easier
times.
I have changed where we stand.
Changing our economy with:
Better quality jobs.
A living wage.
Making sure that businesses can get
the money they need to grow.
This matters.
To me.
To Labour.
To Britain.
And I am proud to lead a party
affiliated to three million working
people through our link to the trade
unions:
The nurses who look after the sick.
The teaching assistants who teach
our kids.
The shopworkers, the engineers,
the bus drivers.
But I know we can do more.
We do it by making promises we
know we can keep.
Not image over substance.
Not fake change.
But by offering a different direction
for the country.
That is where I stand.
That is where Labour stands.
With you, on your side in these
tough times.
That’s what we’re fighting for in these
local elections.
Do Speeches Still Matter?
Dr Max Atkinson, Chris Witt, Christian
Eversbusch and many more will be
speaking at autumn conference
of the UK Speechwriters’ Guild in
conjunction with Bournmeouth
University Media School, 20/21
September 2012. For more details
go to:
http://speechesmatter.eventbrite.
co.uk/
The Speechwriter May 2012 | Volume 09
Newsletter of The UK Speechwriters’ Guild
OUTSTANDING SPEECHES
W ho is really successful at
being self-employed?
I came up with a really naughty
thought.
The person who really is the
perfect model for self-employment is
a burglar.
Burglars don’t worry about
finding the work. They go out and do
it. They go out and burgle. Off they
go and burgle. And they just go and
do it.
They’ve got mates. They’ve got
friends. They’ve got people they
know, they can call on. They form
these loose alliances.
There’s Jimmy the driver. And Billy
the safe man. They’ll get together
and pull the big bank job. But
they don’t want to form a limited
company called Crime Inc. No. They
get together for that job. When we
do that job, he’s the manager.
It’s great. But here’s another thing
about our burglar.
He knows the people he’s chosen
to work with are criminals. They can’t
be trusted. So when the job starts he
makes sure he’s going to get paid. He
knows when those spoils are being
W W W. U K S P E E C H W R I T E R S G U I L D . C O . U K
delivered he’s getting his share.
So many self-employed people
say I’m going to work with my
brother-in-law, he says he’s going
to split the money when we get it.
Yeah?
We’re not sure when we’re going
to get paid but there’s a big company
that promised loads of work. Yeah?
Just ask them to sign a little old
contract then.
The burglar absolutely no way. He
knows he works with crooks.
But there’s another thing about
the burglar, deep in his heart, he’s
driven by something else. He’s driven
by, in his case, dishonesty. You leave
your wallet on the bar, he might
describe himself as a professional
burglar, but he’ll still nick your wallet.
But he’s able to take
opportunities. Here’s an opportunity.
It’s an opportunity, he takes it. In your
heart you should want to be free and
self-employed.
Okay, you want to start a business
making shelves and somebody wants
you to make a cake.
It doesn’t matter. It’s an
opportunity. Make the cake. Take the
money. Because in your heart you’re
being successfully self-employed.
Our burglar succeeds because in
his heart, he’s a crook.
You know, we need to get that
little core of energy to make it work.
But here’s another thing about the
burglar.
Sometimes he makes horrible
mistakes. Which results in him
getting caught and being sent to
prison. That’s his failure. Sent to
prison.
• INFO@UKSPEECHWRITERSGUILD.CO.UK
4
Do you know when self-
employed people fail?
They give up. I failed. I lost my
money. Nobody bought them. I’ll
never do it again.
9/10 burglars go back to burgling.
What is it? Why weren’t they
defeated?
Because they go away to prison
for a few years of gentle reflection.
They meet other burglars who they
share stories with. They network.
How did you get pinched, Brian? I
had my mobile phone on me. Do you
know the coppers can track them?
No.
So he comes out a better burglar,
with better ideas and he’ll share
stories, and he will never make the
same mistake again.
Next time he might get pinched
for finger prints. But he won’t be
caught by the old mobile phone
trouble again. He will succeed by
learning and learning.
Now before you rush out and buy
this book thinking it’s advising you
to be a burglar. It’s using those sort
of thoughts that drives through the
whole book.
Because I’m passionate,
passionate about making you
succeed.
When you’ve read Self-Made Me
you will have no excuse to come up
to me and say it just didn’t work, I
picked the wrong business, I couldn’t
get the money, there wasn’t any
business, I was in the wrong part of
the world.
Speech made to camera by Geoff
Burch to promote his new book Self-
Made Me
The Speechwriter May 2012 | Volume 09
Newsletter of The UK Speechwriters’ Guild
L et me leave you with three
thoughts.
First, cooperation can deliver.
Over the course of the 20th century,
we saw what can be accomplished
when the global community pulls
together, especially when the United
States takes a leading role. Now is
another moment for U.S. economic
leadership.
Second, in a world riven by an
infinity of interconnections, the ideal
of cooperation is as urgent as when
John F. Kennedy said, “Geography
has made us neighbors, history has
made us friends, economics has
made us partners, and necessity has
made us allies”. The time has come
for the nations of the world to stand
together again in the face of a major
economic challenge, and with the
U.S. as a lead partner.
Third, the IMF was founded more
than half a century ago for precisely
this purpose. We are here to serve
our members—including the United
States of America.
Support us. Use us. Work with us.
Thank you
Cooperation and
Connectedness—an Address to
the Associated Press by Christine
Lagarde, Managing Director,
International Monetary Fund,
Washington, 3 April 2012
W W W. U K S P E E C H W R I T E R S G U I L D . C O . U K
G ood morning,
The economic outlook is
glum. Life is serious. Naturally we all
focus on jobs, revenue generation,
economic growth. So now, more than
ever, the public debate about the arts
is focused on the bottom line. We
talk endlessly about art in terms of
regeneration, in terms of the creative
economy, of return on investment.
And that’s right and proper.
The instrumental value of the arts
to wealth, to mental and physical
health, to education, to social
coherence, is real and enormously
important. But today is about
something else: today is about
the extraordinary and essential
role artists play in our society,
their genius, their needs, their
contribution to what matters in all
our lives.
I’ve never met an artist who
set out to work with their pen,
paintbrush or piano with the sole
aim of contributing to the creative
economy. Artists work to explore,
to crash through our received ideas,
to show us personal and unique
perspectives, to express anger, love,
fear and awe.
Great art isn’t about economics.
It’s about the ambiguity and restraint
of Gerhard Richter’s September; the
lyrical insight of James McCarthy’s
17 Days, the breath-stopping horror
of Jacobi’s Lear, the exploration of
personal landscapes of Akram Khan’s
Desh, the restless looking of David
Hockney, or Lucien Freud. These
works, these artists, some exalted,
• INFO@UKSPEECHWRITERSGUILD.CO.UK
5
others setting out to develop their
voices, tell us something about
ourselves, about how we live and
about what it is to be alive at this
time.
And the tougher the economic
climate, the more fearsome the
threats to our ordered and tolerant
society, the more important they are
and the more art doesn’t just reflect
society, but shape it too.
Speech by Liz Forgan, Chair
Arts Council England, State of the
Arts 2012 at The Lowry, Salford, 14
February 2012
I
t is a great honour to join
my right hon. Friend the
Prime Minister, the Leader of the
Opposition and other colleagues in
the House’s tribute to Her Majesty
the Queen on the presentation of an
Humble Address.


On the night of Monday 4 April
1955, on the eve of his resignation
as Prime Minister, my kinsman Sir
Winston Churchill gave a dinner
at No. 10 Downing street for the
Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.
It was attended by Churchill’s closest
political and military colleagues
and friends, and by members of his
private office and his family.
The Prime Minister, in proposing
the Queen’s health, said this:
“I
propose a health to Your Majesty
The Speechwriter May 2012 | Volume 09
Newsletter of The UK Speechwriters’ Guild
which I used to drink in the days
when I was a young Officer in the 4th
Hussars in the reign of Your Majesty’s
great, great grandmother, Queen
Victoria”.

 of 16 countries, including Canada,
He ended with the following
words:
“And I drink to the wise and
kindly way of life of which Your
Majesty is the young and gleaming
champion”.
I am sure that this whole House
will agree that Her Majesty the
Queen has, throughout her long
reign, indeed been a gleaming
champion for her country and for
the Commonwealth. Crowned in the
same abbey church as William the
Conqueror, at the same age – 26 -
as
the first Queen Elizabeth 400 years
earlier, she embodies all the best
qualities and the continuity that are
so important to our country and its
splendid, independent people.
This diamond jubilee will thus
be an occasion for the nation to
thank the Queen, who has served
us so professionally, so loyally and
so conscientiously through these
extraordinary 60 years of some of the
most tumultuous social, economic
and technological change that
Britain has ever seen.

 consort who has done so much to
The Queen brings to our national
life an experience and knowledge
of politics and events all around the
world which is truly unrivalled by any
other person in the land. Throughout
her long reign, she has displayed
great, good judgment, tolerance and
absolute political neutrality at all
times.
When she ascended to the
throne, her first Prime Minister,
Winston Churchill, was of an age to
have charged with the 21st Lancers
at the battle of Omdurman in 1898,
while her present Prime Minister was
not even born in 1952. Such is the
scale and breadth of the life that she
has so triumphantly lived through.

 people and-last, but by no means
W W W. U K S P E E C H W R I T E R S G U I L D . C O . U K
The Queen is a source of powerful
influence for this country throughout
the world, as my right hon. Friend the
Prime Minister said. She is the Queen
Australia and New Zealand, and the
Head of the Commonwealth, an
organisation that includes more than
a quarter of the earth’s population.
She thus brings a vital and often
unrecognised addition to our efforts
and our influence overseas. We in this
House in particular should recognise
this as an irreplaceable national asset
of the first importance.

 youth was passed in the august,
Every country needs someone
who can represent the whole nation.
It may seem primitive - and indeed
it is - but if nationhood is to mean
anything, it has to have a focus.
In our case, for 60 years that focus
has been, and remains, the Queen.
Nations do have values, and they
should be proud of them and willing
to express that pride. That is what
we are able to do with our monarchy
and our Queen, and what we will do
this year.


The Queen, blessed with a
happy marriage to a remarkable
support her does a job that demands
tremendous physical and mental
toughness and energy. Quite apart
from her still extensive public
engagements, her work follows her
wherever she goes, and always has
done. Her life has truly been one
of selfless duty. Yet sadly, there is
probably no day when she will not
read something about her or her
family in the media or see something
on television that is untrue, cruel or
just plain silly.
 your forebears a fundamental role in
We are indeed blessed to have in
the Queen someone who is truly a
remarkable example of dedication,
efficiency and common sense, with
a tremendously good judgment of
least - an excellent sense of humour.
• INFO@UKSPEECHWRITERSGUILD.CO.UK
6
Those attributes, added to a perfectly
wondrous dislike of pomposity and
vanity, and an absolute inability to
pretend to be anything other than
herself, make the Queen what she
is: arguably the most respected and
admired-indeed, loved-public figure
in the world.


I conclude as I started, with
Churchill on the Queen. Broadcasting
to the nation on 7 February 1952,
on the death of King George VI, he
ended with these words:

“I, whose
unchallenged and tranquil glories
of the Victorian Era, may well feel
a thrill in invoking, once more, the
prayer and the Anthem ‘God Save the
Queen’.”
And, 60 years on, so do we
all, Mr Speaker - with all our hearts.
Speech by Nicholas Soames,
House of Commons, 7 March 2012
M y Lords and Members of
the House of Commons,
I am most grateful for your Loyal
Addresses and the generous words of
the Lord Speaker and Mr Speaker.
This great institution has been at
the heart of the country and the lives
of our people throughout its history.
As Parliamentarians, you share with
the laws and decisions of your own
age.
Parliament has survived as
an unshakeable cornerstone of
our constitution and our way of
life. History links monarchs and
Parliament, a connecting thread from
one period to the next.
The Speechwriter May 2012 | Volume 09 7

Newsletter of The UK Speechwriters’ Guild

So, in an era when the regular, story and the virtues of resilience,
worthy rhythm of life is less eye- ingenuity and tolerance which
catching than doing something created it. I have been privileged
extraordinary, I am reassured that I to witness some of that history
am merely the second Sovereign to and, with the support of my family,
celebrate a Diamond Jubilee. rededicate myself to the service of
our great country and its people now
As today, it was my privilege to and in the years to come.
address you during my Silver and
Golden Jubilees. Many of you were The Queen’s address to both
present ten years ago and some of Houses of Parliament to mark her
Commonwealth has flourished and
you will recall the occasion in 1977. Diamond Jubilee, 20 March 2012
grown by successfully promoting and
Since my Accession, I have been
protecting that contact.
a regular visitor to the Palace of
Westminster and, at the last count,
At home, Prince Philip and I
have had the pleasurable duty of
will be visiting towns and cities up
treating with twelve Prime Ministers.
and down the land. It is my sincere
hope that the Diamond Jubilee
Over such a period, one can
will be an opportunity for people
observe that the experience of
to come together in a spirit of
venerable old age can be a mighty
neighbourliness and celebration of
guide but not a prerequisite
their own communities.
for success in public office. I
am therefore very pleased to
We also hope to celebrate the
be addressing many younger
professional and voluntary service
Parliamentarians and also those
given by millions of people across
bringing such a wide range of
the country who are working for
background and experience to your
the public good. They are a source
vital, national work.
of vital support to the welfare and
wellbeing of others, often unseen or
During these years as your
overlooked.
Queen, the support of my family
has, across the generations, been
And as we reflect upon public
beyond measure. Prince Philip is, I
service, let us again be mindful of the
believe, well-known for declining
compliments of any kind. But
throughout he has been a constant
remarkable sacrifice and courage of
our Armed Forces. Much may indeed
M y name is Brian Jenner and
I’ve brought a photograph
to show you today. It’s me, with the
have changed these past sixty years
strength and guide. He and I are very tool of my trade.
but the valour of those who risk their
proud and grateful that The Prince
lives for the defence and freedom of
of Wales and other members of our It cost me £600 and it stands in
us all remains undimmed.
family are travelling on my behalf my study.
in this Diamond Jubilee year to visit
The happy relationship I have
all the Commonwealth Realms and It’s a lectern.
enjoyed with Parliament has
a number of other Commonwealth
extended well beyond the more When I finish writing a speech, I
countries.
than three and a half thousand Bills I print it off, go to the lectern and read
have signed into law. I am therefore it out. The lectern doubles up as a
These overseas tours are a
very touched by the magnificent gift desk and I can make amendments in
reminder of our close affinity with
before me, generously subscribed by the margin as I go along.
the Commonwealth, encompassing
many of you. Should this beautiful
about one-third of the world’s
window cause just a little extra Woody Allen said that 90% of
population. My own association with
colour to shine down upon this being a success was turning up.
the Commonwealth has taught me
ancient place, I should gladly settle
that the most important contact
for that. I’d say that you’re 50% on the
between nations is usually contact
between its peoples. An organisation way to becoming a professional
We are reminded here of our speechwriter if you read out every
dedicated to certain values, the
past, of the continuity of our national speech you write.

W W W. U K S P E E C H W R I T E R S G U I L D . C O . U K • INFO@UKSPEECHWRITERSGUILD.CO.UK
The Speechwriter May 2012 | Volume 09
Newsletter of The UK Speechwriters’ Guild
You’d be surprised how many
people don’t.
I spend quite a lot of time
searching for the text of speeches on
the internet. They publish the ones
made by corporate CEO’s in banks,
international organisations and
insurance companies.
You soon realise that no-one
could possibly have tried to read
them out before they’re delivered –
they’re so verbose and dreary.
I had quite a struggle before
I decided it was my vocation to
become a speechwriter. We all
have natural abilities. Things that
come easily to us. Ideally we need
a job that uses all our talents to the
maximum.
I’ve given it careful thought
and I’ve come to the conclusion
that I play five different roles as a
speechwriter. I wear five different
masks.
The first is that of a JOURNALIST.
I trained as a journalist. I worked
on The Guardian and The Daily
Telegraph. The most important skill of
a journalist is to be able to research
a story. My clients don’t usually have
the time to spend five hours looking
deeply into a subject.
A newspaper has the resources to
support a journalist.
I have reference books – and
the equivalent of a cuttings library
– a large collection of jokes and
stories, which work well in speeches.
It means experience counts for
something.
Most jobs require a little bit of
madness, and a speechwriter needs
to be a FANTASIST.
The Italian sociologist Pareto
said you could divide the world into
two types, people who are routine,
steady going, unimaginative and
W W W. U K S P E E C H W R I T E R S G U I L D . C O . U K
conservative and those who are
constantly preoccupied with the
possibilities of new combinations.
I’m always puzzled by the number
of people who accept reality as it
is. My local councillors worry about
pavements and parking.
When I moved down to
Bournemouth in 2004, I thought
I’d moved to a backwater for senior
citizens. Then I realised the area’s
potential.
If it linked up together with
Poole and Christchurch, I see how it
could become a great city like San
Francisco on the South Coast.
It’s the job of the speechwriter,
with a brooding and creative
temperament, to manipulate the
steady going, because we’re in the
business of reconstructing the world
with ideas.
The third skill you need is
HUMORIST.
I studied French at university. One
of my favourite quotations comes
from the French writer Rabelais.
Mieux est de ris que de larmes escrire
Pour ce que rire est le propre de
l’homme.
It’s better to write laughs than
tears because laughter is what being
human is all about.
What’s the point of being boring?
What’s the point of complaining?
If you want to persuade people to
do something new, it helps if you can
make them laugh.
The fourth skillset is
PSYCHOTHERAPIST.
Speechwriting is a very intimate
process. You’ve got to get under
your client’s skin. When we speak
in public we reveal a lot more about
ourselves than we realise.
• INFO@UKSPEECHWRITERSGUILD.CO.UK
8
When a best man wants to go to
a wedding and tell obscene jokes.
That tells you something about his
psychological problems. I help him
conceal them.
However, when a father of the
bride says he hasn’t got a clue
what to say, it’s my job to probe,
and encourage him to express
feelings that he may have been too
shy to admit to, but will give great
significance to the day.
Lastly, a speechwriter is a
FUNAMBULIST.
For many the prospect of giving a
speech is like a wire walk. It fills them
with dread. The speechwriter has to
walk their walk for them. We can’t
deviate from the path they set.
One of my heroes is Philippe
Petit, the French funambulist. He
was inspired to begin his great
project when he saw something in a
magazine in the dentists in 1968 – a
picture of the Twin Towers which
were going to be built in New York.
Then he decided he was going to
put a wire across the gap between
the towers and do the tightrope
walk.
The story of how he did it,
which made a great book and film,
epitomises for me how an idea
becomes a vision and a vision a
reality.
If you want an image to express
how the speechwriter supports the
speaker, we’re like the balancing pole
to the wire walker. We’re there to add
stability and improve co-ordination.
So I’m lucky. I don’t get to do
just one job, I do five. Journalist,
fantasist, humorist, psychotherapist
and funambulist.
The Five Roles of a Speechwriter:
Brian Jenner’s Icebreaker for
Toastmasters International on
Wednesday 11 April 2012
The Speechwriter May 2012 | Volume 09
Newsletter of The UK Speechwriters’ Guild
AN EXCERCISE IN WRITING DISCIPLINE
Extract from ‘Willpower: Rediscovering Our Greatest Strength’ by Roy Baumeister and
John Tierney, published by Allen Lane.
‘The secret of my incredible
energy and efficiency in getting
work done is a simple one.’ wrote
Robert Benchley. ‘Anyone can do any
amount of work provided it isn’t the
work he is supposed to be doing at
the moment.’
Robert Benchley was an American
humorist. He identified how
procrastinators typically avoid one
task by doing something else, and
rarely do they sit there doing nothing
at all. But there is a better way to
exploit that tendency.
Raymond Chandler had his own
system for churning out The Big Sleep
THE UK BUSINESS SPEAKER OF THE YEAR 2012
A s connoisseurs of fine
speeches, we can consume
as many as we like on YouTube, but
it’s hard to beat the experience of
listening to a brilliant speaker as part
of a live audience.
In fact, the political system has
lost much of its vitality because of
the demise of the public meeting
– the forum where top politicians
could hone their lines and learn to
pacify a hostile audience.
The UK Speechwriters’ Guild
is doing its bit to promote a
renaissance in public oratory by
hosting the UK Business Speaker of
the Year competition.
Southampton-based PEER 1
Hosting has offered £5,000 in prizes
W W W. U K S P E E C H W R I T E R S G U I L D . C O . U K
and other classic detective stories.
‘Me, I wait for inspiration,’ he said, but
he did it methodically every morning.
He believed that a professional
writer needed to set aside at least
four hours for his job. ‘He doesn’t
have to write, and if he doesn’t feel
like it, he shouldn’t try. He can look
out of the window or stand on his
head or writhe on the floor, but he
is not to do any other positive thing,
not read, write letters, glance at
magazines, or write cheques.’
The Negative Alternative Tool is
a marvellously simple tool against
procrastination for just about any
to encourage the country’s leading
business gurus to show off how they
can inspire an audience to do great
things.
Authors, academics, life coaches
and entrepreneurs with a gift for
public speaking are being urged
to come up with ‘an inspirational
business message for our times’.
The competition was piloted
by the UK Speechwriters’ Guild in
September 2011 and aims to draw
attention to the power and impact
great speakers can have.
Up to 24 finalists will be invited
to Southampton on Thursday 27
September for auditions. The day
will end with a ‘Grand Final’ in The
Hub Theatre in Southampton,
• INFO@UKSPEECHWRITERSGUILD.CO.UK
9
kind of task.
Set aside time
to do one
thing and one
thing only.
Chandler’s regimen was
summarised thus: ‘Write or nothing.
It’s the same principle as keeping
order in a school. If you make
the pupils behave, they will learn
something just to keep from being
bored. I find it works. Two very simple
rules a) you don’t have to write b)
you can’t do anything else. The rest
comes of itself.’
hosted by Business Solent. The
last eight will give their seven-
minute presentations which will be
evaluated by the judges.
The best will go through to the
live audience vote and the audience
will decide the ultimate winner of the
competition.
The winner will receive £2,000
and get £1,500 of PR support from
a top London agency to back their
career as a professional speaker.
Second prize will be £1,000 cash and
the third prize £500 cash.
If you fancy your chances as
Britain’s answer to Anthony Robbins,
you need to send in a 60 second
video audition together with a
written pitch and a short profile by
the 27 August 2012.
For more details go to:
www.ukbusinessspeakers.co.uk
The Speechwriter May 2012 | Volume 09
Newsletter of The UK Speechwriters’ Guild
THE LAUNCH OF THE EUROPEAN SPEECHWRITER NETWORK
EUROPEAN
SPEECHWRITER
NETWORK
W hen we launched the UK
Speechwriters’ Guild in
2008, it was a surprise when the first
member to sign up was Dutch.
While promoting the UK
conferences we’ve discovered there is
a German and a Dutch Speechwriters’
Guild. It’s turns out that the art of
speechwriting in English is practised
widely by non-native speakers. Many
delegates have travelled across the
Channel to listen to our experts
speak and we have invited Dutch
and Danish experts speak at our
conferences.
COULD YOU WIN A DEMOSTHENES PEBBLE?
F rom now on The Speechwriter
will be the newsletter for the
European Speechwriter Network and
the UK Speechwriters’ Guild.
To mark this new development,
we’re launching a new quarterly
competition.
W W W. U K S P E E C H W R I T E R S G U I L D . C O . U K
10
To reflect this, we’re launching
the European Speechwriter Network.
While many pan-European
initiatives have to work hard to
One of our members, Roger Lakin,
crafted this description for the
generate a spirit of co-operation,
the speechwriters from different
website: ‘The European Speechwriter
Network is a new global, multilingual,
career-enhancing resource for a
countries seem to strike up a
spontaneous affinity with each other.
newly global, multilingual and
mobile profession. It will be a place
to sharpen your skills, promote
your services and set professional
standards.’
The Network will co-ordinate
a speechwriter search service
for businesses and political
organisations, we’ll organise training
seminars and offer specialist
translation services.
Membership is €72 per annum.
When you join you get a free copy
of Max Atkinson’s book, Lend Me
Your Ears, a subscription to The
Speechwriter, the reading list and a
checklist. The European Speechwriter
Network will bring together linguists
We hope this will be a stepping and writers who practise the craft in
stone towards putting on many different languages.
conferences about speechwriting
in European cities. We plan to host Visit the website:
events in Strasbourg and The Hague www.europeanspeechwriters.org
in the next twelve months.
The Demosthenes Pebble will
be awarded to the best speech
script in English delivered anywhere
in Europe over the previous three
months.
Members can enter one speech
each quarter. The winning speech
will be published in The Speechwriter.
The winning writer will be sent a £25
Amazon token.
To take part in the first
competition you need to submit your
script by 31 July 2012 to
info@ukspeechwritersguild.co.uk.
• INFO@UKSPEECHWRITERSGUILD.CO.UK
The Speechwriter May 2012 | Volume 09
Newsletter of The UK Speechwriters’ Guild
SAM MORT PROFILE
Sam Mort, a native of Scotland,
lived in the Middle East for eight
years as a speechwriter. She now
writes speeches for Anthony Lake,
Executive Director of UNICEF, and
lives in New York.
Can you remember the first
speech you ever wrote?
Yes; and you’ve made me smile
remembering. My boss attended a
tribute to Sesame Street in which we
honoured its creators for their role
in educating children. You better
believe that I milked those muppet
metaphors and played with Sesame
Street’s song lyrics; it was a fun one
to write and a great way to start this
career.
Who is your favorite author?
It’s so difficult to isolate just one.
My all-time favourite is Emily Brontë;
Wuthering Heights is a tour de force.
But, recently, I’ve enjoyed Chris
Cleave’s Little Bee; Michael Faber’s The
Crimson Petal and the White; and Paul
Torday’s Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.
What’s the most important
thing you’ve learned about the
relationship between speaker and
speechwriter?
W W W. U K S P E E C H W R I T E R S G U I L D . C O . U K
I’m a big believer in the better
you know your boss, the better you
can write a speech for him/her. It’s
important to study how your boss
talks and interacts with people and
audiences; to study whose speeches
he/she likes listening to and which
authors/journalists are favourite
reading; and to invest time in the
brainstorm process… pick your
boss’ brains about the direction and
message of the speech.
I’d also say that, with experience,
I’ve become better and bolder at
advising on what works and what
doesn’t in a speech. The happiest
processes are when both speaker
and speechwriter are listening to
each other and thinking together.
Can speeches for international
figures be compelling? Or is it
mostly about elegantly avoiding
gaffes?
Yes, of course they can and they
must be compelling, especially
because they’re delivered by world
leaders. I think one of the best I’ve
heard in recent years was Obama’s
first foreign policy address in Cairo
to the Muslim world. That certainly
wasn’t an exercise in elegance or
avoiding gaffes; he delivered several
• INFO@UKSPEECHWRITERSGUILD.CO.UK
11
key messages at an important time in
East/West relations.
What’s the best TED talk you’ve
seen?
Sir Ken Robinson talking about
how schools destroy creativity.
The man is a genius; original and
clever and witty and confident and
articulate. His ideas are fresh and
bold, and I have learned a lot from
watching and listening to him.
What advice would you give a
graduate who wants to get into
speechwriting?
Know that there’s no one way to
do this job. Understand that to be
successful, you must be flexible in
your writing style and you must be
resilient. Having people read your
speech and give you feedback can be
difficult at first, but it is an important
way to improve.
Do you have a special format in
which you present your speeches?
Times New Roman, size 14,
1.5 spacing; no cover sheet; page
numbers.
What’s it like being a Brit in New
York?
It’s got a lot better since I found
Myers of Keswick – a fabulous British
supermarket with all my favourite
nibbles!
I think a better question is,
“What’s it like being a Scot, who grew
up in the Highlands, in New York?”
The answer is: suffocating! Tiny
apartments. Highrise buildings. I live
to get out of Manhattan’s concrete
jungle at the weekend, and walk
through Central Park after work to
get my fill of ‘green’.
The Speechwriter May 2012 | Volume 09
Newsletter of The UK Speechwriters’ Guild
Of course, the range of
restaurants and theatres and
exhibitions is fantastic, but I like my
mountains and my lochs…and that’s
what I miss most.
How do you add life to formal
speeches?
I try to give it them an interesting
frame so that the heavy content is
sandwiched in between a quirky
factoid. Recently, in a speech on
open defecation for UNICEF, I opened
like this:
Forty years ago today, Apollo
16, commanded by John Young,
landed on the moon. It was the
fifth mission to land on the moon.
By anyone’s standards, it was a
triumph of science, engineering,
and technology. If humankind could
do that, what could we not do?
The answer, of course, is that we
have not afforded 1.1 billion people,
here on earth, their most basic rights:
clean water and safe sanitation. I
think that unlikely comparison
is something that people will
remember.
Avoiding jargon is also high on
my list; I try to talk to the audience
like they’re human beings no matter
how technical the subject matter.
And then there’s all the usual tips
and tricks: select use of humour;
use of the second person to engage
the audience; a smattering of self-
deprecation to endear the speaker
to the audience; some audience
participation, like a question; and
contextualizing figures with concepts
with which the audience is familiar.
You’ve been out of the UK for a
long time – which public figures do
you still look out for?
Working in communications and
media means that I follow many
public figures in many countries on a
daily basis.
W W W. U K S P E E C H W R I T E R S G U I L D . C O . U K
Because of my work in UNICEF, I’m
currently focused on development
issues, so I’m following people
like the PM, David Cameron, and
Andrew Mitchell for messaging on
development aid. I’m interested in
Princess Catherine’s development
as a public speaker, especially on
humanitarian issues. And I think
Gordon Brown speaks very sincerely
and with a lot of sense when he
campaigns for education for all.
Have you ever made a conscious
study of rhetoric?
Twenty years ago, at university
it was part of my English degree
but, to be honest, it’s not something
I channel specifically nowadays.
Writing today feels more organic. I
like to think that rhetorical flurries are
part and parcel of what I do!
What’s the best piece of
advice you’ve ever been given on
speechwriting?
On my first day as a speechwriter,
my boss said: ‘You never hear people
leave an event saying, “that speech
was too short.”’
THE NUTS
AND BOLTS OF
SPEECHWRITING
F ollowing the success of their
seminar on The Nuts and Bolts
of Speechwriting at the February
UKSG conference in London, Martin
Shovel and Martha Leyton will be
running it again as part of the two-
day conference ‘Do Speeches Still
Matter?’ in Bournemouth on 20/21
September.
The seminar is for anyone
involved in speechwriting who wants
to brush up their skills, pick up new
ideas and insights, and learn from
one another. So whether you’re a
complete beginner or a seasoned
• INFO@UKSPEECHWRITERSGUILD.CO.UK
12
professional, you are very welcome
to come along.
Piers Letcher – a senior
speechwriter at the United Nations
– attended the last seminar, and
said of it: “The ‘Nuts And Bolts of
Speechwriting’ seminar successfully
covered a lot of ground in a short
space of time, and provided both
practical advice and handy tips. With
good participant interaction and
lots of helpful examples, this was an
excellent workshop for speechwriters
of any level – from beginners to
experts looking to refresh their style.
Highly recommended.”

Eshaan Akbar, who came to the
seminar to help him get started on
speechwriting, commented: “In
just three hours, I picked up some
of the most important lessons in
speechwriting - the kinds people
spend their entire careers trying to
find!”
To find out more about what
the seminar will cover and how to
register, go to
http://www.creativityworks.net
or follow the links from http://
speechesmatter.eventbrite.co.uk/ or
email info@creativityworks.net for
more information.
The Speechwriter is edited by
Brian Jenner
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