I’m not saying I didn’t like Diana, you know. It’s just that she no more deserves the “Great Briton” accolade than all the other several million decent people in Britain. Trying to live as a decent person “for richer, for poorer”, in the face of adversity and success, is actually what most people I know do. Diana just happened to do it with the attention of the public solidly on her from her engagement onwards. I wasn’t so much sad at her death as shocked. It was one of those “where were you moments” and as I think I’ve mentioned, I was sitting there thinking “this has got to be some sick joke, she can’t be dead, she’s not the sort of person who just dies“.
I don’t actually want Thatcher on the top ten, either, you know – I don’t like Thatcher because I think her view on politics is completely misguided. But I do admire her for what she managed to achieve, even if I sometimes wish she hadn’t achieved it (like the privatisation of British Rail – complete disaster, even if it was well-intentioned). I only mentioned Thatcher because that’s who Anne Robinson mentioned.
To clarify further (and because I feel like it), why don’t I give you my ideal list of ten from the shortlist of 100, and if I can think of anyone I would have like to include who isn’t on the list of 100, I’ll mention them.
Right. Jane Austen, obviously. I’m not even going to explain why. Shakespeare, ditto. I don’t care who wrote the plays, really, whoever it was, whether it was Shakespeare or Shakespeare was just a front and it was really Francis Bacon or someone else entirely – the person who wrote the “Complete Works of Shakespeare”, whoever (s)he was.
Hey, I wanted Wilde on the list, but assumed he was excluded through being Irish, but if Bono can be on there, where is Wilde?!?
Brunel, maybe. He was a great engineer, anyway, I don’t know much about him otherwise (I just love his bridges).
Elisabeth I, Livingstone, Nelson, Nightingale, Pankhurst, Sir Walter Raleigh, Chrurchill – am I up to ten yet?
Hm, Thatcher is on the list. Why did the newspaper stories make it out that she wasn’t? Huh, journalists!
Rowling, if she would only finish the three last books. Not until then, though.
Darwin, hm. I suppose I ought to have included him. Up to 11 plus Wilde, now, plus one-half-Rowling. I’ll stop now…
I wonder what the final ten are going to be.