Some people might say that banning the release of your own autobiography until 100 years after your death might seem just a tad arrogant.

Others might see such a move as strikingly optimistic at best, to even assume that anyone would care to read said autobiography after such an extended period.

But when it comes to the personal life story of Samuel Langhorne Clemens aka Mark Twain (which has been under lock and key for 100 years)... those people are almost certainly going to be proven wrong...

Since the very start of this feature Mr Clint Eastwood has been high on the list. 

Something that impressed us especially here at braingunk was that Clint has managed over the years to cement himself at the very pinnacle of not one, but two highly competitive and totally masculine archetypes and all without rapping at the door of cliché once.

The phrase "Wild West Hero" could have been coined just for the man himself.  From his early work as Rowdy Yates on the TV show Rawhide, through his unforgettable performances in the "Dollars" trilogy of spaghetti westerns, to the brilliant bookend of his western career Unforgiven, Clint always managed to portray a new kind of western man who was distinctly different to those everyone was familiar with and yet instantly felt right...

It's been almost an entire year since we started the Man's Man's Man feature.  There have been some controversial choices along the way and a lot of rubbing of heads trying to work out who should be next. But there was never a shadow of a doubt that the following gent would make the list.  In fact he was the very first one we thought of, but we've been saving the best until last.  As you know the criteria by which the Man's Man's Men are selected is not as obvious as one might expect and although all of our previous nominees have ticked all the boxes, this our final Man's Man's Man takes those boxes, folds them up and puts them in his pocket and saunters off with them, probably to a lavish casino or something. 

Yes when the concept of Man's Man's Man came into being this was the guy we were thinking of, the top dog, the A number 1. the king of men (sadly no longer with us), he lit up the silver screen and the racetrack alike, yes none other than Steve McQueen...

From the back cover:

‘My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie.  I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973’

So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her, her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken  family unravelling”

In  1973, when  Susie Salmon was 15 years old, I was 16. Susie crossed the cornfields to get to school and home again, I walked through the woods.  Susie was murdered, I survived...