Apart from my folks, David Attenborough (reverence for nature), Terry Pratchett (morality), TISM (general attitude to life).

My parents and grandparents.

Real people include astronauts/cosmonauts/etc (all of them), Carl Sagan, Verity Lambert, and counless others whose names aren't coming to me at the moment.

The only fictional inspiration I had, still have and, indeed, need is the Doctor.

I don’t know but I think it all came from my loveless,shitty upbringing. Where I had to look for scraps of kind words from anybody. Where I learned how to be independent and sift through kindness and meanness. I was fortunate that some kind people turned up for me time to time. Having had to do this I truly appreciate people who do look out for others, people who are coserned for all of us not only for what is there for them.

I've never been described as a beautiful little buttercup before but to answer your question........I'm not entirely sure there is a who or a what. I certainly haven't modeled myself on anyone nor, as far as I'm aware, consciously tried to factor in someone's philosophy into my own. There have been a host of people who's lives have been amazing and inspiring, there are also others whom the world has revered but I am more guarded.

I think I am a mixture of parental guidance, schooling, experiences, my intelligence and intellect. I have picked some nuggets up along the way that still resonate but can't put a finger on a moment.

I would hope that I have learned how to think and would hope to pass that on to my kids so that they are well armed and will make up their own minds

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, Ian Fleming's James Bond stories, Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn stories, John D. Rockefeller, Isaac Newton, Aristotle, Ayn Rand, Thomas Edison, Richard Feynman, Jack Welch, Maria Montessori, and many others...