Idea 19: A master of clear speaking

Stars shine always in a clear sky.

Estonian proverb

When I was a pupil at St Paul’s School I was fortunate to sit at the feet of a master of the art of being clear. Field Marshal Lord Montgomery, who happened to be an ex-pupil of the school, came back to give a lecture to the sixth form about the campaign that led up to the famous victory of El Alamein in the Second World War.

Monty, as he was universally known, had based the Allied Headquarters responsible for the planning of D-Day and the invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe in the large red brick building that his old school had vacated for the duration.

Thus he spoke to us in the very same lecture hall that he had used for his final briefings on those plans ...

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