David McKie's top 10 eccentrics in literature

From the characters of Dickens to the fifth Duke of Portland, who was so fearful of being gawped at that he dug tunnels to carry him around his estate, David McKie chooses his top 10 eccentrics in books, both fictional and biographical

David McKie guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 March 2011

David McKie is a journalist and historian. His latest book, Bright Particular Stars: A Gallery of Glorious British Eccentrics, is published this month.


"People tend to assume that eccentric means weird and wacky. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. The first definition offered by my Chambers dictionary is 'departing from the centre ... out of the normal course ... not conforming to common rules' - and the characters in my book conform to that test. Some are weird and wacky, others immensely serious - all are true originals. The collection that follows contains five fictional characters and five real ones. As in my book, it ignores those I think of as designer eccentrics: people who affect a wackiness that may be contrived, not simply spontaneous. They know who they are."

Read his list at The Guardian - how many of them do you know?