Win Elles tickets and Juliette Binoche prize pack!

Josephine Baker! An awesome and inspirational lady. She was a dancer/actress/singer living in France, who was also a spy for the French resistance during WWII and was key to the Civil Rights Movement (she was even asked to succeed to Martin Luther King after he was assasinated). Also she was BFFs with Grace Kelly, which is pretty cool I think. How could you not love this woman?

Juliette Binoche is one of THE best actresses of our time! The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a film that everyone should see! As much as seeing her in The English Patient was good, she shined in Dan and Real Life and other roles. I have not seen her much apart from Three Colours Blue which, out of the series, I personally loved!

Kate Bush and Tori Amos are two extremely inspirational ladies for me, although not in the sense of music. I am a pianist (like both of them), but their inspiration for me is different.
Kate Bush is my creative inspiration - her lyrics are absolutely superb, and I love the fact that she took inspiration from a novel for her first single 'Wuthering Heights', as I am a massive reader and a lover of literature. She's not afraid to be different, but at the same time I never see it being false or an act. It just seems so fluid and natural to her, unlike someone like Lady Gaga who seems to feel the need to step it up and be more controversial and more out-there with every single. Kate Bush's creativity and kookiness comes from within. I also love the fact that she so involved with everything about her music, which shows how much commitment and dedication she has to her craft. This makes me enjoy her music on a whole different level, and inspires me to further pursue my craft (writing), without worrying about what other's may think of my work, and encourages me to just be happy with myself.
Tori Amos is inspirational to me, not only because she makes killer, emotive music (just like Kate Bush), but because she is an incredibly strong woman, a true fighter. Hearing 'Me and a Gun' for the first time, and finding out about her horrific experience with her rape, was a real eye-opener. I love the fact that she managed to come out fighting, and was brave enough to carry on, find love, and make wonderful, honest music. Some of her songs, particularly on her first album, give me genuine shivers, and she puts so much energy into all her performances.

So those are my two inspirational ladies, one for her intense creativity and always staying true to herself, and the other for her amazing strength and courage, and lust for life! :)

I'm particularly fond of sophie scholl, a member of the white rose movement (the anti nazi group, not the band). She was killed for her political beliefs at the age of 21 (and her boyfriend ended up marrying her younger sister, wikipedia is telling me).

Got to be Burns's 'Auld nature' (green grow the rushes, O).....as in.....

'Auld Nature swears, the lovely dears
Her noblest work she classes, O:
Her prentice han' she try'd on man,
An' then she made the lasses, O.'.....

.....unexpected, understated, mysterious, powerful, and wonderfully evocative.

Thank you to everyone who entered - some great displays of admiration there from each of you. We'll let you know who has won tomorrow.

And may the odds be ever in your favour.

Andi

Our prize winner is Laura J!

Congratulations, Laura, and thank you again to everyone who entered.