These are people I admire or like for various reasons, not always because of the things they're most famous for.

Christine de Pizan (medieval writer/poet)

She might have been the first woman (at least since Corinna) to support herself (and her children and her mom) from her writing. Christine became a widow at the age of 25 - widow and a single mom with three kids.

Among other things, she wrote both prose and poetry, for instance love ballads and a biography over a king who had recently died.

When she got older, Christine retired to a convent, where she wrote about Joan of Arc - the only remaining documents written during the saint's lifetime.

Brita af Geijerstam

This incredible lady, who passed away recently, was more than a hundred years old. Yes, that's right. And during her long life, she didn't just work as a dance teacher, translator, writer and poet, she also seemed to have kept her cheerful mood.

What impressed me the most, was how youthful this lady seemed to be. Apart from the face, you could easily guess she was half as old. Perhaps that was because of her dancing, but it's still impressive.

Brita af Geijerstam gave me hope for the future. Maybe it isn't all that bad, growing old. I saw her on tv, because her collection of poetry had hit the list of ten best selling books in Sweden (not the best selling collections of poetry). What a amazing person.

George Bernard Shaw

He was born in Dublin 26 July, 1856. Irish dramatist, critic, socialis and one of the great figures in 20 century theatre. Shaw was a free thinker, an advocate of women's rights. He also proposed a simplicification of the English spelling and a reform of the English alphabet. In 1925 he received the Nobel Prize of litterature. Shaw accepted the honor, but refused to take the money.

He was also a vegetarian, and abstained from alcohol and tobacco. In 1884 Shaw joined The Fabian Society, a society for middle class socialists. H G Wells was another member.

Shaw is known (among a lot of other things) ) for having said the following:

"He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches", "England and America are two countries divided by a common language", "Christianity might be a good thing if anyone ever tried it", and "I never resist temptation because I have found that things are bad for me do not tempt me."

He died in Ayot St. Lawrence, Hertfordshire, 2 November, 1950.

As far as I'm concerned politics don't matter much, but I appreciate the fun things he said, and the fact that he was a proponent of equality between the sexes. And most important of all - he was a vegetarian.

It's interesting to note that artists, composers, writers and other people who work in creative and free professions, often llive to be very old, and hopefully, they stay young for long as well.