Why a French town celebrates an Australian holiday – and what you can learn from it

Since yesterday was ANZAC Day in Australia, I thought it only appropriate that we look at an ANZAC Day speech I worked on a number of years back.

But before I do that, I’d like to apologise for missing last week’s newsletter – I came down with a bad flu at the worst time, and all my energies were expended in actually writing speeches.

Alas and alack.

I guess that’s a good reason to be more ahead.

If only I’d learn…

Anyway, today I’d like to talk about the ‘curiosity hook’.

The curiosity hook is basically opening with something that at first sound makes your audience wonder where you’re going.

In this speech, it looks like this:

N’oublions jamais l’Australie – Let us never forget the Australians.

We ask ourselves two things almost instantly:

1. Why is he speaking French?

2. And why, on ANZAC Day (an Australian day), is he specifically saying we should remember Australians?

So we sit up and listen.

The but the curiosity hook has to be paid off relatively quickly, or else you’ll lose your audience.

In fact, the reason the curiosity hook often fails when people try it is simply that they take too long to get to the point.

Let’s see how this speech handles it:

The instruction is written above every blackboard in the Elementary School in the French town of Villers-Bretonneux. In a campaign using the slogan “By Diggers defended, by Victorians mended” children from the state of Victoria each donated at least one penny to rebuild the school, with the Education Department matching their funds. The new school was named Ecole Victoria. Still to this day the Australian flag is flown alongside the French at Villers-Bretonneux and there is an impressive monument to the thousands of Australian soldiers whose bodies were never recovered.1 Nearby one encounters Rue de Melbourne, Restaurant Kangourou and Pub le Canberra.

We get an answer – enough to make us keep listening.

But at this point we naturally start to wonder – why is a French town so keen to celebrate the Australians?

So the speech voices that very question:

Why such devotion to our country in a small French town so far away? Because on this very night, one hundred years ago, two Australian brigades, on the orders of the Allied Commander-in-Chief Marshal Foch, and led by the Australian General Harold ‘Pompey’ Elliott, launched a counter-attack on the German forces that had taken the town the day before. War Correspondent Charles Bean wrote that the Australians didn’t stand a chance: “thoroughly depressed… feeling certain that this hurried attack would fail hopelessly”.2

The speech then draws parallels with the original ANZAC Day, and quotes a German officer who praised the Australian soldiers’; bravery on that day.

So what’s this speech doing?

Well, it had to balance a umber of elements.

First, ANZAC Day is a solemn remembrance of all those who have given their lives in war.

Second, the speaker was a Catholic Archbishop, which meant he couldn’t and shouldn’t glorify war – but neither did he want to suggest it was futile.

Third – at the same time, the audience was a lot of military brass and veterans and politicians. So this was a political statement.

Fourth, it had to call up, echo, and confirm the expected themes of ANZAC Day – themes of bravery, mateship, and so on.

Fifth – and finally – it had to be interesting. Many speeches were given that day – his couldn’t be just another.

So it tells a story of Australian bravery – on ANZAC Day, but three years after the original (failed) ANMZAC Day campaign.

In doing so it calls up the tenacity of Australia’s forces – and by quoting a German officer’s commendation of their bravery, it confirms the expectation in a way that says ‘See, this isn’t just us saying it – the enemy said it too.’

But in a speech like this, there’s always the danger of being ‘in the clouds’.

So the speech ends by grounding the bravery of many in the story of one:

We remember them, not just as impersonal humanity but as individuals. Recently friends of mine buried their 96-year-old father and grandfather, Jack Langrell, who served as an Able Seaman on HMAS Australia in the Battle of the Coral Sea. His father John had served in the Royal Australian Navy from 1911 to 1933, including on the first HMAS Australia, and then became a Police sergeant at the Naval Dockyard Garden Island. Jack in turn served from 1938 to 1955 on the second HMAS Australia, as well as HMAS Albatross, HMAS Hobart, HMAS Kanimbla and the third HMAS Sydney.5 “Pop” was a man of great faith, warmth and humour, who could see the good in any person or situation. By flaunting his great age and cleverly wearing a golden Irish beret and smile, he managed to get his photo in the papers every ANZAC day.6 Greatly loved by his wife, three children, nine grand-children and fellow servicemen, he had a great influence on many.

How many more of our returned service personnel had such an influence or would have had, had they lived? After the war the people of the still ruined town of Villers-Bretonneux erected a memorial to the Aussies who died there on this day one century ago. The Mayor declared that the people desired “to thank the valorous Australian Armies, who with the spontaneous enthusiasm and characteristic dash of their race, in a few hours chased away an enemy ten times their number… Soldiers of Australia, whose brothers lie here in French soil, be assured that your memory will always be kept alive, and that the burial places of your dead will always be respected and cared for.” As we entrust our departed veterans to their loving God, we join our French friends this day in declaring that they will never be forgotten. Lest we forget.

In the end, I was proud of this speech.

Could it have been better?

Well, the curse of the artist is always thinking it could.

But if I’m honest, I think it was a success.

And what are the lessons?

One is the power of a strong ‘curiosity hook’.

(If it’s paid off quickly.)

Another is to ask yourself before you write, ‘What are the beliefs, desires, and feelings of my audience?’

Then think how you can confirm or build on those.

But perhaps the best lesson is this:

If you don’t have something interesting to say, either you’re not saying anything, or you haven’t studied enough.

In either case, you can fix it by further research and study.

I’ve written 7 ANZAC Day speeches in my career – and not one repeats itself.

Why?

Because I spent hours looking for a new way in every time.

Once I found that, it was easy to write something different.

This is just as true for any topic you’re speaking about, no matter how dry.

If you can’t ground it in a story that give sit colour, you haven’t spent enough time looking for that hook.

That’s it for now.

Talk soon,

Alexander Westenberg

P.S.

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