A Book 800 Years in the Making

“There are lots of books about speechwriting—but this is the first one in 800 years about how to write a parliamentary speech,” reads a line in the publicity material issued to promote this volume. 

Let’s get one thing straight from the top. No one should make the mistake of taking that bit of promotional text, or even the book’s title, too seriously. The fact is that you don’t need to work in the British parliamentary system, or in one of “Westminster”-style parliaments found in Britain’s former colonies, to enjoy and benefit from How to Write A Parliamentary Speech. Almost everything in this book relates back to what speechwriters who have never set foot in a parliament (except perhaps as tourists) will recognize broadly as “executive communications,” that is, when leaders attempt to influence an audience’s views through a speech, be it short or long.  

Richards’ experience with British parliamentary speechwriting began in 1991. As he recalls those early days:

Like virtually every parliamentary aide before and since, I was charged with writing speeches for a senior politician infinitely more versed in Parliament, politics and policy than I was. And of course, there was no training programme, mentoring scheme, online resources, or even a handy guide like this one. I don’t imagine I was very useful.

Richards’ book divides his advice to parliamentary speechwriters into five sections. First, Richards take the reader on a tour of the UK Parliament’s mixture of arcane written and unwritten rules as they pertain to what elected members of Parliament can say (or must not say) in their speeches and how they are generally expected to speak during formal proceedings. It’s a key part of a parliamentary speechwriter’s job, properly understood, to help keep the boss on the right side of those rules.  

Next comes a long, detailed chapter on how to approach the drafting of a parliamentary speech. Among Richards’ gems of advice is an anecdote about Oscar Wilde spending a “morning deciding to add a comma to one of his poems then spent the afternoon removing it. A successful speechwriter should display a similar degree of attention to detail.” 

This is followed by a section outlining the broad categories of speeches that a parliamentary speechwriter may have to prepare, supplemented with useful advice about each scenario. The last two chapters cover the use of formal rhetorical devices and some tips on speech delivery, respectively. 

In writing the book, Richards has combed through his more than 30 years of direct professional involvement with British parliamentary speeches. Crucially, this involves Richards’ experiences in not just writing and editing speeches, but also his just as important three-plus-decades of intensely listening to, watching and evaluating how parliamentary speeches can land just as intended, miss the target or badly flop.  

From this rich vein of raw ore, Richards has extracted for readers’ benefit a varied collection spread out across the five main chapters of handy checklists, useful UK political and parliamentary lore, telling anecdotes and illustrative sample speeches. His dry sense of humor sparkles on practically every page, making his book very entertaining as well as informative.

Let’s hope no one feels that another 800 years have to go by before there’s a second edition of How to Write a Parliamentary Speech.

You can watch Paul Richards discuss parliamentary speechwriting in a recent conversation with Brian Jenner of the European Speechwriter Network here.