For twenty-five years Aung San Suu Kyi (b. 1945) has been inspirational. To think that she spent the years 1972-88 mostly in North Oxford (the very words are redolent of peaceful domesticity) but by 1991 her life had changed so dramatically that she had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize; yet it would be two decades before she could formally accept it  – her house arrest did not end until 2010.