Lend Me Your ears, Professor Max Atkinson

Published by Vermillion (Random House)

Buy it now from Blackwell Books


The best introduction to public speaking

Professor Atkinson is the academic who famously coached a novice speaker to a standing ovation at the 1984 SDP Conference in Britain. Over twenty years later, with this book, he confirms his pre-eminence in the field.

Though the good Professor’s book concentrates on speaking skills, he does examine the differences between writing to speak and writing to read. He breaks down the rhetorical aspects of speaking and explains several clever ways of getting the reaction you want. He also covers body language and his book is sprinkled with exercises to help you comprehend and practice the principles he advocates. A persuasive and very useful work.

But here’s the interesting bit, and one of the reasons I admire this book so much. Like me, Professor Max eschews PowerPoint – at least when used as it seems to have been designed, for a bunch of bullet points. The professor loathes bullet points and wants graphics to be the main use (if use there must be) of PowerPoint. The matter is not as clear cut as one would like, of course; it must be a case of assessing each presentation’s type of support on the merits of the case. In the main though, the less one relies on PowerPoint, the better - say the Professor and me!.

Entertainingly written by a man who clearly understands his topic.