Genius, clever clogs, smarty pants, know it all........

I may be the youngest Peter in the world.

That is apart from the pop idol Peter Andre of whom I am constantly reminded on the predictive text function of my phone whenever I try to sign off a message.

It has been a popular christian name in the past.

History abounds with famous and infamous Peters from monarchs to revolutionary leaders, Saints to footballers, musicians to motivational speakers, golfers to regional news readers and Tour de France competitors.

There are of course countless more who remain anonymous but still exist as worthy bearers of that forename.

 I have often tried to find out my parents' motivation behind my naming whether a distant relative, to maintain the succession through the family line of a beloved name but so far the only person they have alluded to was the lead singer of 1960's pop group, Hermans Hermits, one Peter Noone. I have checked and that is actually his birth name and not a stage name fabrication so he is an authentic Peter which I find very comforting.

I have therefore decided to compile a few pieces of writings on the illustrious contributions of my namesakes.

Peter Roget was born in 1779. A lot like me he was obsessed as a child with making lists as part of a coping process but this was  many generations before the common diagnosis of OCD or ADD.

In his later life he suffered from depression but persisted in a most determined and focused manner to achieve great things. Not altogether like me after all. His was a truly remarkable personality, described by his colleagues and friends as being of a richly cultivated understanding. OK, that's where any resemblance in our characters ends.

In his lifetime he was a well respected and learned Physician, much published in his treatise on physiology and medical matters.

I admire him highly in his ability to think rationally and logically and these traits were put to good use in what must have been a precious leisure time during which he invented a pocket chess board and that curse of many a schoolboy, the logarithm slide rule.

He was a visionary in many disciplines and amongst his rare failures was an attempt to develop an early form of a computer.

His research around the viewing of the spokes of a wheel through apertures and the optical deceptions produced have been recognised as a pioneering work in the history of cinematography.

I am not sure how he found time in his busy schedule to do much more but Encyclopedia Britannica benefitted from his broad knowledge and wisdom.

The defining contribution of the great man, however, was his Thesaurus.

In the history of language, literature, expression and art this great work retains a unique place.

It was very much a life's work and labour of love being published in 1852 when Roget was in his early seventies. His childhood obsession had been put to good use in his old age and the scale of the endeavour ultimately served as a therapeutic pursuit for his depressive nature.

Perhaps he was a lexicographer all along and  the rest was just flim flam, hokum, legerdemain or just plain old smoke and mirrors.