A disappointment. It came highly recommended, but the book is too early in the research on body language to be anything but obvious now. It's all about making eye contact, how to get applause, and a couple of rhetorical tricks the ancient Greeks knew: the rule of three and contrasts. BTW, the Greeks had about 50 more such tricks. Atkinson needs to read up on them.
Important analysis of some of the techniques orators use on audiences and how this has been influenced by TV, where Atkinson shows why the great orators of the past wouldn't necessarily find their techniques very successful today, while also showing not only how to spot that you're being 'worked' by an oration, but that the skills involved aren't innate.