This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
16


SLICK


Reluctant MC Lucy Mangan reveals the joys and perils of public speaking, with the inside word on how to shine at the podium


D


TALKING PROPER Tips for top speeches


1 SWEET CLARITY


Stumble over your Ss or m-mumble all your Ms? Try elocution lessons. Being understood is the fi rst step to getting your point across – and far from being the sole domain of BBC broadcasters from the 1930s, elocution is more popular than ever. A 2012 report by thetutorpages.com found that


o you know why I became a writer? So that I wouldn’t have to speak. Specifi cally, so that I wouldn’t have to speak in public. Some people love it, of course. Barristers, for example, make it their life’s work. They


intrigued me in their embryonic form at law school and they intrigue me still. As they rise to argue their case, the adrenalin fl ows through them like oxygen through a lung and contributes almost as vitally to their survival. Freaks. Utter, utter freaks. Me, I like to be quiet. More than that, I like to be quiet


AND have an opportunity to redraſt . So I inveigled my way into journalism instead (not proper journalism; not fearless, investigative, pavement-pounding stuff of the kind that brings down presidents or shatters Antipodean moguls’ empires, because, God, can you imagine the kind of chat you’d have to undertake for that? Interviewing, questioning, persuading, cajoling… let corruption lay waste to all that we hold dear, I say, rather than put myself through any of that). And what do I fi nd? It’s nothing but public speaking. If you write a book, you have to go on publicity tours, do promotional videos and podcasts and generally shill the shizz out of it. If you appear in print, you are oſt en asked to speak on the radio and, if you have nice enough hair, appear on the television. If you say no, people think you are weird and stop asking you even to write for them and then you have to go back and try to be a lawyer again.


DON’Tbe shy,BE Sh


enquiries for elocution lessons outnumbered any other subject. Margaret Thatcher famously had lessons to change the sound of her high-pitched, too-feminine voice, and a certain silver-tongued polymath was also an elocution student when he was just a small Fry. So, if you feel you need to polish up your pronunciation, just visit speak-easily.com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36