My uncle Robert was really influential, as he encouraged to keep playing the guitar. It’s a massive part of my life now, so I thank him for that!
He was the kindest, most generous and most genuine person I ever met in my life. Should be a saint!
Big Influence submitted by Paul de Ridder.
My Zaida was the kindest, warmest man in what sometimes felt like a cold world. He was unfailingly kind and loving towards me and I learned from him the value of relationships, the importance of love and how it felt to be acknowledged and appreciated. When I was very little, he would wrap up my favourite sweets (Dolly Mixtures) and hide them under the flowers in the garden. He told me that the fairies had left them for me. He made me believe in magic – what a gift to give to a child! He was, along with his mum and dad and brothers and sisters, a refugee from Belarus. They escaped from the Russian pogroms. Had they stayed they may well have perished in the holocaust so its as well they left when they did. In London as a young boy, along with one of his sisters, he was plucked out of school each morning by his parents after the register was taken so that they could send him to work to help feed the family. With his lack of education he worked with his nimble hands and became an gifted tailor. He was an incredibly hardworking man all of his life. He was a fireman in the blitz – my hero! He died when he was 64 and I was 8. I was inconsolable for years and here I am being a bit leaky now as I write about him 44 years later.
Big Influence submitted by Amanda Falkson.
My Grandad was an amazingly principled man who had an incredibly difficult life. History and the prejudices of his time seemed to conspire against him at every turn but he kept true to his beliefs with a sense of humour and a kindness that was truly humbling. His relationship with my Nan was an inspiration and their love for each other clear for all to see. His principles and simple approach to life continue to motivate me in my life, even though he is long gone.
Big Influence submitted by Rachel.
He taught political history at my secondary school and was the first person to make me really think about what was going on in the world and what I wanted to do about changing it for the better.
Big Influence submitted by Diana Francis.
I’ve been lucky. To be able to say that your Big Influence is your Dad is in my view just incredibly lucky. What was it about him? Well he was a good man. He had clear values and lived by them, even when the consequences of living by those values was difficult. He was a generous man, a solicitor who did lots of his work for no charge. He was interested in the world, interested in young people, interested in ideas -respectful of others and a natural teacher. He was a quietly passionate man who truly loved the things that mattered to him, his family, his nation, Wales, music, poetry. But for me above all he was a kind and gentle man, an inspiration.
Big Influence submitted by Evan George.
I tend to gravitate towards people who have not allowed the difficulties either in their childhood/young adulthood deter them from pursuing their goal in life and most importantly not conforming to the norm!
My Aunt, who has since passed away had a very powerful character, encouraged me to dig deep for inner strength to overcome the obstacles in my life and strive to make a difference in the life of others. In addition Oprah, Maya Angelou, Nelson Mandela and Obama.
Big Influence submitted by Donna Prince.
My father has influenced my life. He wanted me to achieve something big when I grew up. He wanted me to believe in myself but at the same time to respect others. He used to curse whatever he went through and therefore did not want me to follow his routes. Apart from religious education, he did not have any sort of modern education, which he always regrets about. So to start with, he invested in my education and that of my three brothers. Secondly, he wanted me to take responsibility of my own life at a very early age. He always wanted to test my stamina by prompting me to take all sorts of risks. I thank him for that.
Big Influence submitted by Hailu Hagos.
My dad left school at 13, my mum at 15 – the world of higher education was not something they knew anything about. The teachers at my secondary school told us all it was a possibility, but there was only one who made that feel real and really possible for me. His name was Tony Gynn, and, when I look back on the path my life has taken since I left school, his influence and his encouragement and his example about thinking the unthinkable, that anything was possible, was my Big Influence. He convinced me university was for me; he filled me with his enthusiasm for the world of newspapers – where I now work; and he lent me the sort of books that he knew I’d like, the sort of books I now I write. I wish I could tell him how much I owe him, but he died, far too young, in 1995 before I had got round to realising and articulating it.
Big Influence submitted by Peter Stanford.
He ws small, fat, heavy-smoker priest called Father Willie McElhinney, and when I was 13 years old he taught me English. To say he was an inspiration would be an understatement. He changed my life.
What did he do? Well, we’re talking back in the 1950s now, in a boarding school where newspapers were forbidden. Every Friday Fr McElhinney used to bring a newspaper into class and he’d read aloud a humorous columnist of the time called John D Sheridan. The column itself was funny but what we all loved was the delight Fr McElhinney took in it. His face would go red, his shoulders would heave and he’d be laughing so hard sometimes, he’d have to stop to catch his breath (all those fags). I can still hear that breathless chuckle. In those Friday classes I learned how much side-cracking fun reading can be.
In addition to the column, each week he would give us an essay to write. Sometimes we wouldn’t write an essay at all, we’d write a short short story, but he didn’t mind. Before handing back our work on a Monday he’d pick out the top one or two to read aloud. On several occasions he chose mine, and because I knew he liked funny stories I would make mine as humorous as possible. When he chuckled at the funny bits and the other boys in the class joined in, I was weak with joy. To think – words I had written in a copybook were making all these people laugh! It was in those glorious moments, when I found my first audience, that I realized how much I wanted to be a writer. Fr McElhinney made that possible.
The third form his inspiration took was in his teaching style. All our teachers back then carried a strap and most didn’t mind using it, sometimes brutally. Fr McElhinney was different. He had a strap but he never seemed to use it. Instead he used his laughter and enthusiasm and delight to show us how important reading and writing were, and how much he loved both. It was from watching how he achieved so much with his chuckles and encouragement that I eventually became a teacher myself.
Fr McElhinney died in his mid-forties. It’s years and years ago now but in my head and heart he’s still alive. Still there, chuckling and reading from the newspaper or my essay book and saying ‘Well done! Good man yourself!’ In the end it’s probably not the reading or writing inspiration that I value most. It’s the way he showed me how to be a decent human being. Just because others around you are being tough and brutal in their dealings, doesn’t mean you have to do the same thing. In a way, by being human, he taught me how to be human too. Now that’s an inspirational gift if ever there was one.
Big Influence submitted by Jude Collins.
My parents have been my big influence because they give me stable home environment that I did not appreciate until I had had my own children. I now echo the words that I hated hearing from my mother, in particular, to my own children. Those dreaded words “be home on time” “where are you going and “who are you going with” make so much sense to me later in life. Hopefully I’ll hear the same words repeated to my grandchildren (if I ever have any????) My father (Michael) has also been a big influence my career decisions by helping me to get my first paid job as a youth worker
Big Influence submitted by Donna O'Kane.
My big brother was my Big influence as a child. 4 years older than me he always seemed so more grown up and mature, clever and always better than me at sport whilst encouraging and supporting me to compete. Strong, fair, friendly and popular, his example to me of trying to do your best and thinking of others is one, even now, I try to live up to.
Big Influence submitted by Phillip Watson.
Bunty was my mother’s friend and a surrogate grandmother. She lived nearby and my sister and I would go round to her house to hang around, ask lots of annoying questions and play with her jewels.
She was FUN and smelled like flowers. She also had a husband called Charlie who told us that Charlie Brown, the cartoon, was based on him which was amazing. Bunty was so patient with us and I loved getting to know her – she told us lovely stories about her growing up in Scotland and what it was like during the war.
This is corny, but the banter between her and Charlie was lovely to be around and it was fabulous seeing an old couple in love. When Charlie died, my sister and I would visit more often but Bunty didn’t survive for long without Charlie and she died soon after.
The most positive influence that Bunty had on my life is to teach me that best friends come in all shapes, sizes, ages and backgrounds. When we were friends, I was 8 and she was 80.
Big Influence submitted by Menissa Saleem.
He was the first in the family to come from Jamaica to the UK as part of the Jamaican Army for World War II. For a young man of 19 coming from the countryside of Jamaica, leaving his wife and young family behind, to come to the UK and work in the RAF wasn’t easy. He settled very quickly showing the focus that saw him picked to come in the first place and on returning to Jamaica in 1947, he received offers of employment to come back. His constant self-discipline and his principled approach over the years in the face of overt racism, personal and family problems is my greatest inspiration.
Big Influence submitted by Hamish Crooks.
This is the book that got me into reading. Like a magic-carpet ride, it whisked my seven-year-old self off to another world – a more fantastical, more enchanted place. Up until then, I never really understood why my mum and dad and my teachers banged on about reading.
The right book can have a BIG influence on your life.
The right book can be a door to an unforgettable adventure. The right book can be an escape-slide that carries you a place where the characters are old friends. The right book can make you laugh like mad. The right book can show you how to live your life. The right book can make you feel good about yourself.
Now I am a grown-up, my job is writing books for children. And if my writing gives just one child the same happiness and enlightenment that reading has given me, I will be REALLY delighted.
Big Influence submitted by Rachel Wright.
She is 1 in a million and i dont think anyone else will ever match up to her.She took me in when noone else wanted wanted to foster me. The 6 weeks that my sister & i was meant to stay turned into a very happy life time. she taught me how to love, laugh trust and all the important things you need to know to grow up.
She is the the best person i have ever met in my life. She had a great sence of humour always up for a laugh, kind, generous, made everyone i knew welcome and i still miss her madly
Big Influence submitted by brenda.
She was wild, always up for party and was a demon at making ends meet, our friends were always welcome – she’d just cook more potatoes! She told us to experience life – people are what count not money or status, I miss her loads.
Big Influence submitted by Judy Russell.
My big influcence was my Aunt Tina, who lived her own life rather than the once expected of her by family and through her upbringing. She helped me understand that a good and useful life can be achieved in many different ways.
Big Influence submitted by Pippa.
One of lifes everyday heroes who taught me so much without my realisation. Always there to lean on.
Big Influence submitted by James Cowan.
My big influence came from 19th century England, 120ish years and a whole culture removed from my world as a child.
I grew up in an environment of conflict and mental illness, and none of the adults around me had the resources or health to support me. Teachers and those outside my family viewed me mostly as a problem.
The novels of Charles Dickens, especially David Copperfield, gave me the emotional validation and hope I so badly needed. And they inspired me to write, a practice which has sustained me in many ways ever since.
Big Influence submitted by Lynn.
