A very happy St George's Day to all English readers.
As it's England's national day, how about a vote on who is the Greatest Living Famous Englishman/Woman?
If I had to make a shortlist, I'd include, in no particular order: Tony Benn, Sir David Attenborough, Jimmy Perry, David Croft, Kevin Keegan, Sir Mark Prescott, Joanna Lumley, Brian Haw and Professor Tim Berners-Lee, a very nice, modest man without whom you probably wouldn't be reading this.
How about you?
6 comments:
Celebrating St. George Day? There could be Muslim riots, you know.
I like your request for nominations for the greatest living Englishman/woman. I believe you mean the person who has made the greatest contribution to humanity. Tim Berners-Lee isn't a bad choice by that metric. I know you will mock me to scorn, but Paul McCartney and Margaret Thatcher are people I consider worthy of consideration.
Hi Douglas,
I agree with you about your first choice, but let's agree to disagree about the second....
Best wishes,
Neil
Arthur Scargill; and Mick Jagger for all those great songs, being the UK's best singer ever, being a model of staying power (even though the best was over 30 years ago), and being a model of a non-violent, non-macho, succesful heterosexual male. His politics seem a bit ill-thought-out though; I heard he admired Vaclev Havel - please!
And how about our last heavyweight boxing champion. I'm afraid I don't remember his name, which says it all about the lack of appreciation for him - that big, black guy, who was having mental health problems, last I heard.
Most great Englishmen are dead but here goes...
Top Ten
Roger Scruton
Peter Hitchens
Michael Burleigh
J G Ballard
Robert Conquest
John Gray
Roger Moore
Corelli Barnett
James Lovelock
Michael Foot
Worst....
Tony Blair
Jack Straw
David Cameron
Richard Branson
Martin Jacques
Melvyn Bragg
Seumas Milne
Polly Toynbee ( most irritating journalistic style ever ).
Cliff Richard
Ben Elton
Derek Draper
Frank Bruno - the name came back to me.
Karl Naylor's got a choice collection of fantasy novelists there - Scruton, Hitchens, Conquest, Barnett, Ballard ( he's the odd one out, because he's half-talented). Perfect for 'Fantasy Island'.
A piece of 'trivia' but St. George's Day (though in May) is widely celebrated by communities of Roma in the Balkans: many of whom are, paradoxically, Muslims...!
Meanwhile, for greatest living English persons - I thought of the writer, John Berger (though an expatriate), who has taught many people (me included) how to see and Helen Bamber, the founder of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture.
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