Pace David Bowie, and in the light of the hagiography building in some quarters around the late Steve Jobs, one wonders who are the real enduring, beyond "just for one day" heroes, ancient and modern?
A good candidate from my childhood is Alexander the Great, from the moment I first shed a tear when reading in a Ladybird history book (a constant companion, and part of a set which I preserve with fondness and gratitude to this day) about Alexander dying (at just 33, thereby giving him a special bond with Jesus in my young mind) "far from his homeland". As a long-standing, albeit non-heroic exile from my own homeland, this still resonates...
Of course, many have tried to dispel the aura around Alexander; the latest being historian Mary Beard in a new biography. She may be correct in her analysis, but how do we want our heroes, godly like Galahad, or flawed and vital like Lancelot, Alexander (or, for that matter, for today's unhistorical acolytes, Jobs) and the rest?
Equally, and more prosaically, there are many others, in many walks of life, not heroes as such, but people nonetheless whose achievements and interests might be satisfying to try and emulate, even to a small degree. One such is polymath Melvyn Bragg.
