The Duke of Edinburgh as a speaker

There has been a great deal of media coverage over the past couple of weeks of the 60th wedding anniversary celebrations of the Queen and Prince Philip. In the late 40s, the Duke of Edinburgh suddenly found himself being required to speak at a huge number of high-profile events (within a short time, he was the patron of several hundred societies!) He became so proficient at this that books of his speeches were published; I own a copy of one. (It is only when he speaks off the cuff without preparation that he tends to make verbal gaffes - rather like George W Bush!)

In an interview in the early 60s, he described after dinner speaking as 'a kind of erudite music hall'. This is very true - there has to be a performance element, however good the material.

I have always told students that it can take much longer to master injecting life into the delivery of speeches than it does to learn techniques for overcoming nerves. Sometimes a novice speaker can be so busy demonstrating their new-found calmness that it comes at the expense of a lively presentation!

This is where recording every speaking engagement can prove to be extremely useful. When I started out, I learned to relax but, perhaps because I had years of national radio comedy scriptwriting experience behind me, I expected my material to win over audiences for me. I soon discovered that it doesn't work like that!

So, over time, I learned to 'give it some welly!'. It took a while - often I would feel that I had gone slightly 'over the top' only to listen to the playback and hear little more than a monotone - but, gradually, with experience, despite being a painfully shy person, I became a performer at my speaking engagements.

Public Speaking Tip #90: A speaker needs to be energetic, warm and enthusiastic and to vary their style according to content and type of audience. Recording all your speaking engagements will help you to develop these essential qualities.