Old Dog and New Tricks spring to mind. When our book was launched in April, our publisher asked if we would be interested in giving talk(s) on the said book. We agreed and it was arranged that we would do three talks in the Autumn at Sheffield's Off The Shelf Festival
After quite a bit of thought and research during the summer I brought together a presentation that I thought would illustrate the main themes in the book, as well as engage those people who attended the talks.
Now rather foolishly I anticipated that not many people would be interested in C19th Sheffield history and even less so in the ramblings of a middle-aged man in such matters. Hope wrong can you be. The first talk at Firth Park library on a Monday afternoon in mid October attracted around 60 people, none of whom walked out. And the second took place at Sheffield's Central Library last night and attracted over 100!.
Now for someone who has spent his life avoiding public speaking and the like, I should have found the prospect daunting and nerve-racking but the opposite was the case. Even when the PA system packed up last night half way through the talk I just carried on as though nothing had happened.
The presentation was well received and we did receive some favourable comments about the talk and its contents afterwards.
I am certainly glad that I agreed to do the talks but I honestly thought that they would only attract a few people at best. I have one other at Crystal Peaks library on Thursday 8th November 2012 at 2.00 and I must say that I am looking forward to it.
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