How often have you listened to famous
speeches on tape, radio, screen
or DVD and wondered if you could jot that
down or write up a few lines
to get the gist of it ... well, here is a golden opportunity.
Today there is a gift inside the Guardian newspaper title:
Great
speeches of the 20th Century and focusing on
The wind of change
Speech by Harold Macmillan February 3, 1960 with
a foreward by Douglas Hurd
It begins with the idea that it is a great privelege to be asked to address the
members of both Houses of Parliament in South Africa ... its wonderful
to evoke a response in the reader of the excitement of words and
phrases carefully knitted together to create outstanding
speeches of the 20th Century.
Douglas Hurd has offered help and assistance with putting
Harold MacMillan''s speech in context
No British Prime Minister had visited South Africa before
Harold MacMillan did MacMillan spoke for 50 minutes and
Douglas Hurd comments that it was long for a speech even
by those standards in that point in time .. 1960
The phrase "the wind of change is blowing through the continent"
has been held up before all of us since my childhood and its
a line that has found its way into popular culture.
Apparently before the Prime Minister, Harold MacMillan delivered
the speech he was violently sick ... Douglas Hurd said that
MacMillan spoke with some of the affectations of his day,
and that a lot of what is contained within this speech goes
with his character.
Its interesting to note that the speech is still of great interest
today to students and teachers alike and in my career
I have taught Public Speaking and have done a little bit
of Public Speaking in London at the Industrial Society
Event where I came first in a competition but I doubt
if anyone would ever write it up.
Its extraordinary that it took this long for the speech
to be available because it wasnt in the staffroom
cupboard during my period of teaching Public
Speaking ... I used to invite my students to write
their own speeches as I had to do all those years
ago in 1969!
Happy reading ... excellent stuff!