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Whether you're giving a toast at your best friend's wedding, a presentation at work or facing the Press for the first time, few people find it easy speaking in public.

Former BBC broadcaster and executive voice coach Jackie Arnold is an expert.

Ruth Addicott caught up with her to learn the art of public speaking and how to keep your cool when your knees are shaking

It is difficult to imagine highflying executives paying large sums of money to stick their tongues up their noses but, believe it or not, it is common practice in Brighton.

This is not some bizarre ritual taking place behind closed curtains in Kemp Town but a professional voice-training class for people who hate public speaking. Former BBC broadcaster and executive voice coach Jackie Arnold is showing ordinary people and business executives how to improve the way they speak without going bright red and turning into a quivering wreck before an audience.

Having spent years on air reading the news live on the BBC, Jackie is a fully-qualified pro and more than happy to share her tips with others.

Her clients range from entrepreneurs, head teachers and design engineers to CEOs who are having to face the Press for the first time.

She points out a lot of people get nervous about giving a speech, whether it's a presentation for work or a toast for a best friend's wedding.

The key, she says is to keep breathing.

Like Professor Higgins in the film My Fair Lady, where he makes Eliza Doolittle speak through a mouthful of marbles, Jackie has created her own techniques - getting people to touch their nose (and chin) with their tongue being one of them. Yawning is also good, apparently, as is humming because it increases the flexibility of the vocal cords.

Another favourite of hers is getting people to pretend they are a tree.

"You have to stand tall as if you are a majestic oak," she explains. "Stand upright and drop your shoulders allowing your neck and throat to be free of restriction, then visualise a silver thread going up through your body."

In a bizarre way it works, giving your voice an air of authority.

Jackie's path to speaking "proper"

began when she was a child and boarded at an all-girls convent school in Rottingdean. She later went on to study music and drama and in 1969 she was asked to join Radio Brighton, as co-presenter of BBC children's programme Cabbages And Kings.

"The first thing they told me was my voice was too high for radio," she says.

"So I had to lower my voice. It helped me become more conscious of the way I speak and how to take care of it."

Taking care of her voice is something Jackie is very particular about. She drinks a lot of water (never with ice) and is quick to criticise celebrities such as Chris Evans, whom she believes is letting his voice go to ruin.

Again, it comes back to breathing.

"Most people don't pause when they are speaking and if you don't stop for breath, you're depriving your lungs of fluid," she points out. "If I breathe out I am getting rid of stale air, if I breathe in, I'm breathing in fresh air. That gives your brain a kick and allows the tract to become more fluid.

"I have quite a concern about Chris Evans," she adds. "If he continues to present his radio show in the way he does he could damage his voice because he never pauses. He gets very excited and as his excitement increases the pitch of his voice gets higher and higher. It's rising up so high he could be damaging his vocal chords. He needs to take care of his voice. He needs to do breathing exercises on a regular basis so he can get to the end of a sentence.

His posture is not very good, either. He leans forward when he walks."

Jackie recalls another instance when a young girl came to see her from Switzerland. She suffered from asthma and people used to make fun of her voice saying it was too high and creaky.

"She was very shy and used to look down every time she spoke so her voice sounded really tinny," she says. "As soon as she relaxed her shoulders and started to breathe properly she spoke perfectly. It had nothing to do with her asthma - just her self-esteem."

Another client, a CEO, had to speak to the Press and give a speech in front of royalty. "It was about protocol, etiquette and facing the media," she says. "We went through every possible scenario. He rang me up afterwards and was over the moon."

Jackie claims Tony Blair and David Cameron have got public speaking down to a fine art, although she reserves judgement on Gordon Brown.

"Somebody ought to work on his image," she says. "He walks into a room and instead of commanding it with his voice, he tries to do it with his chest and ends up sticking his chest out like an emperor penguin. His personality doesn't shine through."

One of Jackie's tips for public speaking is to have a glass of water.

"It's amazing how tense people get and drinking water does help," she says. "Tony Blair can often be seen sipping water - it gives him time to pause and think."

During her years of broadcasting, another skill Jackie learnt was how to keep her composure at all times - something she had got used to in her other job as an entertainment hostess on cruise liners. While the ship was rocking from side to side in gale-force winds, Jackie would sing Puff The Magic Dragon in a bid to calm down the guests.

"We received an SOS once and had to rescue 300 Greek sailors," she recalls.

"Their ship was sinking fast. Our boat was rocking like mad, people were terrified and I had to keep all the adults and children entertained throughout the rescue."

In 1970, she came up against an even bigger challenge when she was trapped in a Force 11 hurricane off the Bay of Biscay.

"All the passengers had to be tied into their bunks for safety and everyone was screaming and crying," she says. "It was chaos. We had to chain chairs to poles in the middle of the room and every piece of glass got smashed. It was horrendous. I didn't think the boat would survive but it just rose up and up until it reached the top of the wave and rocked down the other side. I thought if we can survive this, we can survive anything."

Although it had its fair share of hairy moments, going out live to the nation was a doddle by comparison.

Even in the Sixties when female broadcasters were few and far between and shown little respect, Jackie stuck to her guns and kept her composure.

"We weren't allowed to read the news or comment on the World Cup at first," she says. "They said women were too emotional and we weren't zappy' enough. It was very controversial at the time. They would always try and find fault with what we'd done and if you pronounced a name or a foreign town wrong, it was always, Oh those women can't pronounce the words properly'."

Gradually, women were given more and more leeway and Jackie was one of the first female broadcasters to read the sports news (albeit hockey and swimming).

"We used to fly in with the results.

Quite often we'd be on in five minutes, you'd just have to take a deep breath and go," she says.

Despite the pressures, she always managed to keep her calm, even after a close encounter with Spanish flamenco guitar player Manitas de Plata.

"He was playing at The Dome in Brighton," she recalls. "He's quite a funny looking guy and his face was covered in pock marks. I was quite young and innocent at the time and at the end of the interview he invited me out to dinner with himself and the troupe.

"I accepted, thinking I might be able to get some more quotes. Then when I went outside, his PA came up to me and said, I understand you've been invited out to dinner tonight by Manitas de Plata?' I said, Yes, that's right.' She said, Do you realise you'll be expected to go back to his room later?' I said, No' and she said, Well, if you don't want to, I suggest you leave now'."

By the time Jackie re-joined the BBC in the early-Eighties, after a brief period abroad, things had moved on and she was given news, sport, education and holiday reports to read on a regular basis.

Since starting her executive coaching business in 2001, she has written a series of books, including the latest Raise Your Glasses, Please! (Howto Books. £7.99) - a step-by-step guide to giving a speech for any occasion.

As far as speaking goes, Jackie is a firm believer people shouldn't lose their accents. If she does have a pet hate, it's Americanisms and the tendency some people have to raise their voice at the end of a sentence.

Lack of confidence and low selfesteem are the main reasons people don't want to get up in public she says.

"A lot of people say they've been told they've got a terrible voice and end up thinking they are a failure - so it's all about changing negative beliefs.

"Winston Churchill was always asked How come you are so spontaneous?' And he said, Practice.

Practice. Practice'."

Top ten tips for public speaking

1 Convert fear to excitement and it will disappear as soon as you get into your stride
2 Visualise yourself giving a successful speech every evening for a week beforehand
3 Close your eyes and imagine the audience listening and applauding
4 Arrive on time and meet as many friendly faces as possible
5 Check your equipment and props both before and at the event
6 Imagine you are talking to a group of friends - "see" them in the audience
7 Clip your notes together and number them in reverse order so you can't "get lost"
8 Hum to yourself to increase flexibility of the vocal chords
9 Pause, breathe, stand upright and drop your shoulders
10 Have a glass of water nearby so you have time to think

12:22pm Monday 15th October 2007

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