Tadley and District History Society (TADS)
On 21 May, I spoke about An Attractive Impediment: the Life, Literature and Laughter of Patrick Campbell for the Tadley and District History Society in Hampshire. I was able to discover a little about them from their website.
Public Speaking Tip #218: You can often find out about an organisation that has booked you by looking at their website. Sometimes even some fairly small groups have one - it's always worth finding out.
This was the first time I had ever spoken to a history society and I tailored the material accordingly. Although this talk is primarily about a brilliantly funny Irish journalist who became an unlikely TV celebrity in the 1960s (he had a severe stammer), his story takes in Irish politics, famous figures in the arts in the 1920s and 30s, Ireland during World War II and the early days of satire on British television. I did extra research/revision so that I could highlight the historical parts, for example, Campbell's brief period working for Lord Beaverbrook.
The result was that I had additional material to consider including in future versions of this talk which are not for history-related clubs.
Public Speaking Tip #219: Tailoring an existing, long-standing presentation for a specific type of interest group can produce new material which may then be considered for any future audience.
I was met at Basingstoke station by Derek Heath who had a little trouble recognising me as he'd been looking at the website of a different Nick Thomas and was under the impression that I was an ex-RAF officer born in 1941 (which was actually the year in which my mother was born!)
There were about 40 at St Paul's Church Hall in Tadley (a pretty respectable turnout considering that I was competing against Man Utd v Chelsea in the European Champions League final!) and the society had very thoughtfully laid on some refreshments for me for before the talk.
My talk was, I think, a bit of a departure from the usual type of presentation at their meetings but it went well.
