London 1940 was a grey place. In June, smog and grey skies made way for sunshine. Not that there was any summer cheer. Homes were in a perpetual gloom because of blacked-out windows. Food was scarce and kitchen broth was the family staple meal. And then the Germans were approaching.
Against this backdrop, the new Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, made a series of inspiring speeches that strengthened the resolve of this despairing nation. His most famous, ‘we shall fight on the beaches’, remains etched in the British psyche even today. The bald, rotund cigar-smoker suffered from a stutter and yet is remembered as one of the greatest orators of all time.
A concerned blog reader contacted me to ask whether it was possible for her to stop stammering. King George and Winston Churchill overcame their speech impediments, as did actor Bruce Willis. Had they not, the world would look very different today (and there would be no Die Hard movies). But how did they do it? How can a stutterer gain eloquent prose, sufficient to rally the troops and entertain the masses? Let’s find out, and dispel some false assumptions along the way…