The Joy of Talk

'Power is knowing what to say next. You can be sitting next to a billionaire or a film actress and if you know what to say and they are at a loss for words, in that encounter you are the more powerful.' This delightful book on how to talk wears its knowledge on its sleeve. Kit Fraser's deliciously un-PC guide to the skills and pitfalls of the art of conversation will be welcomed by all of us who have faced that dreadful moment of what to say next. Born into a famously erudite 'clan', his side of the family were taught to be taciturn, stoic and mindful of what was said. It did not serve him well. 'By nature and nurture I am one of the silent majority - I cannot help but notice that it is the talkers who get the good jobs and the pretty girls.' With plentiful examples from his own life and others, and quoting a host of thoughts from antiquity to Zelda Fitzgerald, The Joy of Talk will make the most tongue-tied loquacious and the clumsy stutterer a verbal super-star. In seven easy steps we can all learn that words are the point of man; words enable progress; words are the key to seduction; words are noise; word-making is man's primary instinct; communion between people happens through words; words impart feeling; words are just labels and finally, and possibly best, some words are grenades. Dinner parties will never be the same again.