Tomorrow I set off for Boston (USA, not Lincolnshire), where one of my oldest friends is getting married. I’ve been tasked with speech-making duties, so today I hit pause on Spike Book 5, and set my mind towards coming up with a pithy 5-minute summary of the groom. I’ve recently had warnings, not from the bride or groom, but from another Brit who gave a best-man speech at an American wedding. He told me he kicked things off in the usual British style (‘As well as a dishonest man, X is also a crashing bore’ etc etc) then spent the rest of the night fielding appalled looks from his US audience, who felt he’d been a traitor to his friend (and who had seemingly overlooked the equally traditional begrudged slushy ending to the speech). So tone is all, it appears, and the needs of the audience paramount. Not too different from fiction writing, really, come to think of it…
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Yes – Yanks don’t do subtle. Best remembered when going through security as well. Heaven knows how Oscar Wilde didn’t land up in clink.
We got caught in a 3-hour queue at Logan International for security, so a good point. That said, I think the audience may have wanted a little more scandal on the groom, despite the advice I’d received…