There are a quite few figures that vie for the title of 'Staffordshire's favourite son', but Doctor Samuel Johnson is up there.
Of course, virtually nobody in Staffordshire actually reads much of what he wrote any more - though, at Christmas, yes, one can buy little volumes that contain his collected witticisms.
Curiously, he had a lot of strange bodily afflictions in his life, including an incurable facial tic, and what we would now call Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
Anyway, he now has pride of place (a statue in the square!) in Lichfield and in Uttoxeter; and, as you can see, his portrait has been chosen to hang in the grand 'Judge's Room' in County Buildings in Stafford.
He's looking suitably stern.
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