I’ve spent a lot of this week in the Reading Room of the Wellcome Library, which has a frieze of the names of the great men of medicine. It’s a beautiful piece of sign-writing, marred only by the lack of any great women of medicine up there - not even Marie Curie. Particularly disappointing, since it was only created in 1962, when we might have hoped for a less gendered interpretation of greatness.

It got me thinking about whose names I would write on the wall if I were to pay tribute to my own heroes. Liz Lochhead perhaps, or Carol Ann Duffy. Philip Larkin for both poetry and librarianship. And of course Walter de la Mare. Then I thought about all the lesser-known people whose names mean something only to friends and family: Jenny Cairns, Margaret Sloan, Betty Wilson.

What’s in a name? In this week’s free-write, start with a list of twelve people who mean something to you. They could be famous or infamous or completely unknown outside your family circle.

Look over your list. What do these people have in common? Do they each represent a different quality, or do they share an achievement you admire? What does this tell you about the things you value most in life? Pick three of these values and free-write about them. Do your values have a personification, like Medicine has Hippocrates? Do they have a colour, like the Wellcome’s list is written in gold?

Your resulting piece might be imagistic or surreal or philosophical. It could be a poem or a piece of prose or the setting for a short story. Have fun with your heroes!