Frances Edmonds is a best selling author, broadcaster and cross cultural communicator
BA Hons (Cambridge); MA Hons (Cambridge) AIIC (International Association of Conference Interpreters); FRSA (Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts); Honorary Fellow BAWE (British Association of Women Entrepreneurs); Founder Member PSA (Professional Speakers Association). She is a major shareholder in Eton Gate Builders who are currently renovating Madonna’s house in London.
Frances Edmonds has been rated Britain’s most entertaining female speakers in a recent survey by The Times. A best-selling author, her non-fiction covers sport, politics, motivation, self-help and personal success. Enthusiastic, often controversial and always thought provoking, she consistently receives top ratings for her humorous and motivational presentations. A gifted, multilingual communicator, she also uses her linguistic, creative and broadcasting skills to deliver relevant, inspirational and, above all, realistic strategies for personal and professional fulfilment. With five languages, French being bi-lingual her ability to facilitate and moderate conferences throughout Europe is much in demand.
After graduating with honours in Modern Languages from Cambridge University, Frances trained as an international conference interpreter at the European Commission in Brussels. She went on to work for the major international organisations (EU, UN, OECD, WEU) and for the G7 heads of state and government at their annual World Economic Summits. Fifteen years of negotiating at the highest international level taught her invaluable lessons in the art of cross-cultural communication and consensus creation. She builds on these insights to deliver powerful messages on the challenge of leadership and team building in today’s richly diverse and constantly changing corporations.
Her professional writing career began in 1986 when she accompanied her husband, international cricketer Phil Edmonds, on England’s disastrous tour to the West Indies. It was there that she wrote her first highly controversial bestseller, Another Bloody Tour, which shook English cricketing and sporting establishments to their foundations. In 1987, she covered the Ashes series in Australia and produced another Number One bestseller, Cricket XXXX Cricket. In Australia, she hosted Good Morning Australia, the country’s most popular breakfast TV show, and reported on the America’s Cup for The Times.
In 1989, she wrote Members Only, a search for signs of independent, intelligent life in the Houses of Parliament. She found few. Her subsequent novels, Samson and Delilah, Star of Heaven and Games were all greeted with international critical acclaim.
Her book, Winning The Game of Life (published by HarperCollins, June 2001) suggests tools for personal success and motivation and embraces techniques employed by many of Britain’s foremost captains of industry and sportsmen and women.
Frances Edmonds has wide experience on radio and television, hosting programmes as diverse as Women on Top, Men Behaving Sadly, A Game of Two Halves and The Greatest and appearing on programmes as different as Question Time and Question of Sport. She believes that a genuine interest in other people and their issues is as crucial to interviewing as to the successful hosting/chairing/moderating of any ceremony or conference. Elected an honorary fellow of the British Association of Women Entrepreneurs for her promotion of British business interests, she also appears as a news reviewer for BBC TV’s Breakfast with Frost and is a regular contributor to a wide range of publications including The Times, The Sunday Times and The Evening Standard.
Frances is a gifted communicator who uses her extensive international experience and creative skills to understand, entertain and inspire her audience. And all this, in five different languages…
“Incroyable! What else can one say? Your contribution to the evening was quite outstanding. Not only for your speech, but also for the manner in which you interacted with our group both before and after dinner. You had quite clearly “done your homework” in tuning into the Mentoring and Teamwork program that we are undertaking and your delivery beautifully reinforced the messages that we had been sending. The use of your obviously remarkable gifts as a linguist with our Arjo Wiggins colleagues from Belgium achieved everything we had hoped for and more. Some were blown away by your lack of an accent when speaking French – by that I mean and English accent – great praise indeed.”
Wayne Thomas, Managing Partner WT Consulting, Executive Search and Selection.
The topics covered (in your motivational speech) were so appropriate for the group it was uncanny and I thank you for the thought and preparation you obviously put into it.”
Mike Morris, National Sales Training Manager Barclays Life Assurance Company
“On behalf of the Department, I should like formally to thank you again very much for your splendid chairmanship of our recent “Engaging Employers” Conference. The success and enjoyment of the event owed much to the way you steered delegates through a busy agenda with a mix of firmness, humour and evident empathy with the messages the speakers sought to convey. In particular, your very perceptive and concise summing up of sessions and workshops was very helpful and much appreciated by delegates.”
Alan Davies, Head Training for Young People Department for Education and Employment
“I am delighted to be able to tell you that the launch of correspondent.com was a tremendous success! The mix of journalists, industry followers and business people proved very productive and the evening was given an incredible boost by your role as master of ceremonies. Once again, on behalf of my team, I would like to thank you for your invaluable support.”
Duncan Barclay, CEO EPNworld