Harold Macmillan’s oratory is inextricably linked to his persona. His personality, style, oratory and rhetoric were each inter-connected and comprised his political craft. He was a self-conscious orator who critically analysed what he referred to as both the ‘matter and manner’ of his speeches. His education would have included Aristotle’s theories with its concepts of ethos, pathos and logos. Macmillan sedulously cultivated his speaking style as an extension of his political personality. The image that he developed is linked to the ethos on which he traded. Many have referred to Macmillan’s acting and his insouciance. He acquired this ‘protective theatrical