When ministers working in Tony Blair’s Cabinet regularly delivered speeches written by Sternian, Simon Lancaster – few would have traced his rise back to a piano in LWC’s Junior House.

But it was here that Simon believes his initial route into speechwriting began.

“They had a little music room,” he reminisces. “I remember spending entire weekends in there as a full boarder, writing songs at the piano. I had one of the most important lessons of my life at LWC. It was from Bernard Newman, who was Director of Music at the time and it was a half-hour lesson on songwriting. It talked about how you come up with words, how to use meter, alliteration and all of those literary devices that I’ve been using ever since. It lit a fire which is still burning.”

Simon returns to LWC on March 3^rd to mark World Book Day. It will be his first time in the 1200 since leaving the College in 1989. He admits to being intrigued by the opportunity to tread some familiar turf, before speaking to 3^rd, 4^th and Sixth Form students about his writing.

“I think I’m most excited about being back and reliving some memories,” he beams. “I have a vivid imagination anyway, but I dare say when I look out onto the rugby pitches, I’ll see little 12-year-old me again, or me running late for classes with toothpaste on my blazer. I think it’ll be very emotional and inspiring as well.”

Simon Lancaster is now a world-renowned speechwriter. Having studied for A-levels in Music and English at LWC, he arrived at the Civil Service (via playing piano in a Leicester Square restaurant and a fleeting career in sales). He worked his way up at Whitehall to become Private Secretary to former Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, before transcending into full-time speechwriting. Since leaving to set up his own company in 2007, he has gone on to write words for some of the world’s biggest CEO’s, along with penning four bestselling books on communication.

But he can still remember September 1983 with crystal clarity.

“I was ten years old and living in London,” he recalls. “I was a Foundationer at LWC and I was raised by a single mum. We were on benefits, living on an estate and my Mum saw an ad in the local paper for Lord Wandsworth College….It was a case of going from a council estate to a country estate and it just blew my mind. I can still remember getting picked up by the LWC minibus at Winchfield Station.”

Simon goes on to recall some firm friendships being established during his time at the College. “We had a reunion in September and there were people there I hadn’t seen for 35 years. You just pull each other’s legs like it was yesterday.”

Despite his first love clearly being music, he remembers moments of his time at LWC that would give an indication of things to come.

“The Headmaster, Guy Dodd did an assembly where he played the audio of Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. I still can’t hear that without getting shivers down my spine. There’s something about that man’s voice that tells you he’s at breaking point. He’s begging. It’s such a powerful appeal from the very core of his being. I remember hearing that speech and being blown away.”

Getting a true sense of the person delivering his words, has been at the heart of Simon’s work ever since he began speechwriting.

“There’s a myth that a speechwriter is a puppeteer, controlling idiot politicians,” he explains. “If only it was as easy as that. The real truth is that you have to find what they want to say, what do they care about? What are their stories? As a speechwriter in the Civil Service, you hang out with your principal. I spent a lot of time with Alan (Johnson), just chewing the fat. I find people’s heroes to be very illuminating. So for Alan, it was The Beatles….I frequently referenced them in speeches. When we were at the Department of Trade and Industry, I wrote a speech called The Long and Winding Trade Round. We did a speech on science and education called Sergeant Pepper Economics.”

But alongside the pun titles and rules of three, is some serious psychology around how to get someone to deliver something and mean it. “As a speechwriter, you have to defend your principal’s position,” he reasons. “To work out how to make that defence, you have to understand what gets them going and how they speak. Alan was very much motivated, in my view, by a desire to create a society that was at ease with itself. That’s very different to the kind of almost-angry sense of injustice that would motivate someone like Gordon Brown.”

Simon estimates he must have written around two thousand speeches in his career to date, which surely sets the bar quite high when it comes to the most memorable. He cites working with Sir Peter Lampl, Founder of the Sutton Trust and education entrepreneur, Sunny Varkey “because they’ve resonated with my story.” But the true highlight sits much closer to home.

“I think the speeches I’ve written that have stuck with me the most, have been the speeches I have written for myself,” he admits. “So the first TEDx Talk that I did in Verona in 2016. That was a big, big thing. I was terrified. I think there’s a safety in being behind someone else and all of a sudden, you’re putting yourself out there. I think you get to a point where you want to share your own opinions and say your own thing.”

Which leads us nicely back to where we began. The fire, first lit at LWC that continues to burn. “I think my overall message to those I’m speaking to at LWC will be to trust yourself,” he admits. “Trust your convictions. You’ve got to find out what it is that you want to say. What’s your message to the world? Then say it. The people trying to please everyone will please no one”…..even if there is a Beatles pun involved.