Before the players left for England, she called them in for a pep-talk and asked them to put on a brave show.

ECONOMIST: Meet the minnows

In a pep-talk to about 70 staffers, "he said, 'We're in a battle for the future of the country, '" said one staffer, who described the party's rank-and-file as "fired up" at the sight of the former president.

CNN: Jonathan Karl: Reporter's notebook

This was less a conference speech and more a national pep talk - a call to reject pessimism and to embrace the British spirit.

BBC: Tory conference: Cameron's national pep talk

An hour before his Emporio Armani presentation, the designer slipped on a pair of plastic shoe covers and stood on the pristine white runway to give the 70-odd models his ritual pep talk.

WSJ: The Future of Armani

No-one had beaten her up, she wrote, and one guard gave her a pep talk when she was crying in her cell.

BBC: Amanda Knox and prison life