Who is the most interesting person you know or knew?

Nice thread and well timed.

I love meeting interesting people. Whether it's just for an afternoon or if they become friends.

I have 3.

The first is an author who I was delighted to sit next to at a friend's wedding. She had recently travelled to view the Northern Lights and the way she spoke about it was fascinating. I then found out she was being mentored by Margaret Atwood and that was not even close to being the most interesting thing about her. I loved spending that time with her because I had only had my baby 6 weeks prior and I wasn't finding the adjustment to motherhood easy. She reminded me that I was more than just nipples and nappies. I haven't met her since but it was a delight to spend time with her.

My second is the boy I dated at Uni. We were both outdoorsy and climbers. Our life was constant adventure. We would say 'let's go to Scotland' or 'let's go to France' and just head off. He had a store of stories and a deep well of knowledge about mountaineering but he wasn't a bore and he wore his incredible talent so lightly that no-one first meeting him would know he was one of the top climbers of that era. I was never bored with him and miss him often.

My third is a dear chum who I don't get to see nearly often enough. She is a poet but not at all annoying about it. She is generous with her time, intellectually engaged and very warm. I think she is so interesting because she lives on a boat and doesn't have a TV. Gives her a different perspective on the world than most other people I know.

Thankyou OP for giving me a space to think about these people.

I have a lovely friend called Michelle, I met her through a Facebook group. She is a professional shooter and shoots in competitions (clay, not real animals), she has completely restored her own cottage, she fosters guinea pigs, she’s never owned a television, she has a ghost in her house called Eric, she drives a Porsche and honestly she is one of the most interesting, talented women I have ever met, and above all she is so humble. She’s done everything but she just quietly raises everyone up around her and is endlessly curious about our lives.

Not sure I can narrow it down to one person, but I absolutely love it when (as has happened many times over) I get to know an elderly person, and months, or often years into knowing them, (ir even, sadly, at their funerals sometimes), you start to find out about things they've done in their life that are really eye opening.

I think it can be too easy to take people at face value, and 'as they are now', and, despite it happening many, many times in my life, it is easy to forget that they were once 19 or 23 or 36 or whatever, and that probably are still that person inside.

I think the first time this happened was when a great Aunt of mine came home from Australia, where she'd lived until she retired, so I obviously didn't know her, and I found out that she'd volunteered at the start of the war, and had nursed in the army in Africa. I often think of her if I watch a film or TV series, about that time, or read a novel set in war time, and you think about these young women who went into the unknown. After the war, she had 'wonderlust' and went to live in Australia, which, at the end of the 1940s, meant she never saw her Dad again, and only travelled home once in that time when she saw her siblings and Mum. It just seems such a different life from me meeting this grey haired lady, back when I was a child.

Hard to choose between my mum and dad but I have decided it's my dad.

He had his own successful business, he played with me and my sibling every night after work (summer in the garden, in winter indoors), he taught me sport and the importance of it and the life lessons it teaches, he was kind and stood up for what he felt was right very firmly, he had wonderful political debates with my maternal Grandmother, spent years researching a subject he was interested in, taught me how to stand up for myself, always calmed me down when I was anxious (it was my dad that I phoned when I went into labour with dc2).

I know I lost a lot when I lost him but typing that has really made me remember what I lost! He did not get to enjoy seeing his grandchildren grow up which is a great shame.

My dad. Gone several years.
He was very well read, deep interest in history, music, film, books.. could talk on anything.
I owe him everything.

My husband. He's travelled a lot, plays a couple of musical instruments and is a qualified steam train driver. He's quite modest so even after 20 years I still occasionally find something out that surprises me.