| I think it was the Russian writer Tolstoy who said that | | | | tomorrow"), Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Caine, the dodgy |
| the most significant revolutions were internal; in other | | | | Hugh Grant, Kate Winslett (Titanic) and Sean |
| words they happen individually and in your head. I can | | | | Connerry.The first film I ever saw, when I was seven |
| see what he meant, although if the old boy had been | | | | years old, was 'Red River' with John Wayne and |
| around in 1917 he might have bitten his lip.We tend to | | | | Montgomery Clift. I was taken by my dear foster |
| think of revolutions as being violent and bloody | | | | parents and I have never forgotten it. The following |
| conflicts, which of course they are, the French, Russian | | | | week I was taken to see 'Winchester 73', starring the |
| and American Revolutions being prime examples. On | | | | already mentioned James Stewart. Cinemas in those |
| the other hand, the Industrial Revolution, which, in the | | | | days were wondrous places with, it seemed to me, |
| end was more far-reaching than any of the other | | | | impossibly high ceilings and extravagant baroque |
| contemporary revolutions, was on the whole, | | | | decorations everywhere. This one had an amazing |
| peaceful.At this point I have to do a little flag waving | | | | colour and light-filled organ, which came up out of the |
| for Scotland. Well, I don't have to, but I'm going to. | | | | floor. The whole thing, the electric organ like a rainbow |
| Three important inventions of the time, without which | | | | in the dark, and the ten-foot high cowboys clanking |
| it's difficult to see how the Industrial Revolution could | | | | across the screen (we always sat near the front), |
| have made much progress, were all Scottish. In 1769 | | | | made an indelible impression on me.It was only later, |
| James Watt patented the first effective steam engine | | | | when I started to read the likes of Dee Wells' 'Bury My |
| and subsequently had a unit of power called a Watt, | | | | Heart at Wounded Knee' that I began to realize that |
| named after him. Then there was the macadamised | | | | the Western myth, powerful as it was, had another |
| road, invented by - yes, you've guessed it - a man | | | | side. When you grow up, you realize that everything |
| called McAdam.Finally there was the pneumatic tyre, | | | | has another side.As for books, I suppose I read mainly |
| invented in Scotland not once but twice, and forty | | | | English writers, from Kipling to John Galsworthy and |
| years apart. It was first patented in 1845 by Robert | | | | G.K.Chesterton. Chesterton could be poignant, as |
| Thomson, used successfully for a while on bicycles | | | | in;'With monstrous head and sickening cry,And ears like |
| and then, unbelievably, forgotten. Forty-three years | | | | errant wings,The devil's walking parodyOn all |
| later John Dunlop re-invented it, and the rest, as they | | | | four-footed things.Fools! For I also had my hour;One far |
| say, is history. Robert Thomson, went on to invent the | | | | fierce hour and sweet:There was a shout about my |
| fountain pen, and he gets my vote for that, as I detest | | | | ears,And palms before my feet.'The Donkeyand he |
| biro pens (excusez-moi, Monsieur Biro).Just for the | | | | could be funny in an odd sort of way;'The souls most |
| record I might as well mention a few other | | | | fed with Shakespeare's flameStill sat unconquered in a |
| contemporary Scots inventions.James Simpson - first | | | | ring,Remembering him like anything'.Chesterton once |
| doctor to use anaesthetics,Joseph Lister - first to use | | | | dedicated a story to his readers - 'So many of which |
| antiseptics,The Kelvin scale,Maxwell's equations in | | | | belong to the human race'.One of my favourite writers |
| Electro-magnetism (whatever they | | | | at the time was Henry Williamson, a contemporary |
| are),Marmalade,The macintosh. A waterproof coat, | | | | and friend of T.E.Lawrence, 'Lawrence of Arabia'. His |
| invented by a Scots chemist called (why, of course) | | | | best-known book was 'Tarka the Otter', a gritty, |
| Charles Macintosh. He invented it whilst trying to do | | | | realistic story about the life of an otter in North Devon. |
| something else, but it still counts as a Scottish | | | | Much later I was disillusioned to find out that he was a |
| invention.I'm tempted to add whisky to the list, but I | | | | Nazi sympathiser, and I think he once actually met |
| have a feeling that this particular invention would have | | | | Hitler. I can only think he was attracted by the idea of |
| had the effect of slowing the march of progress to a | | | | 'purity'. Well, we all know where that leads.I read a lot |
| walk, or possibly a stagger.Fortunately we do not have | | | | of science fiction in those days, starting with H.G.Wells, |
| revolutions anymore; we have elections. Not even that | | | | Arthur C.Clarke, C.S.Lewis, and going on to the |
| business with the holes punched in voters' cards in the | | | | American writers, Ray Bradbury etc. Thats probably |
| Bush vs Gore election scramble caused more than the | | | | how I discovered American writers in general; |
| American equivalent of a Gallic shrug (and doesn't that | | | | Hemingway, John Steinbeck, who wrote East of Eden, |
| seem a long time ago now?)All the same, the earth | | | | from which the film starring James Dean was made, |
| has moved a couple of times in our lifetime (well, in | | | | and the wonderful James Thurber, whose elegant and |
| mine, anyhow); once in the fifties and then again in the | | | | witty prose deserves to be better remembered than it |
| nineties, with the coming of the communications | | | | is. Perhaps he really belongs to that black and white |
| revolution, based on the silicon chip and the | | | | era in which Spenser Tracy always wore a suit and |
| all-conquering computer. Incidentally, while we're on the | | | | Katherine Hepburn would glide through a marble hall |
| subject, hands up all those who actually know what a | | | | bigger than most people's houses today.I must also |
| silicon chip is. Hmm, I see you're all with me and Homer | | | | mention William Faulkner who wrote about the Deep |
| Simpson on this one. You remember when the doctor | | | | South and the mythical Yuknapatawpha County. In all |
| asks him if the alien life form he'd seen was silicon or | | | | his novels he explored the sometimes convoluted |
| carbon based, and he thinks for a moment and says, | | | | relationship between the races. He also wrote one |
| "Um, the first thing - zilophone".Anyway, the fifties, as | | | | humorous story, 'The Reivers', which was made into a |
| everyone knows, saw the rise of the teenager. Before | | | | film starring Steve McQueen. For me, he was one of |
| the fifties, young people wanted nothing more than to | | | | the best mid-century writers, although apparently he |
| grow up like their parents. They dressed like them and | | | | was not much liked by the local farmers, who referred |
| probably thought like them. If Dad wanted to wear his | | | | to him as 'that writing fella'. Perhaps he got too close |
| trousers under his armpits and have shoulder pads so | | | | for comfort in his stories. Or maybe it was his habit of |
| broad that he looked wider than he was tall, then that | | | | retiring to bed for a couple of weeks every once in a |
| was okay for Junior too.All that changed with the | | | | while with a bottle of whisky and a copy of |
| coming of James Dean and Marlon Brando. James | | | | Shakespeare. You can never tell what these writing |
| Dean was gone by the time I reached my teens, but I | | | | fellas are going to do next!Finally in this tale of |
| still went through the black leather jacket and white | | | | influences, it was as far as I remember, a book I'd |
| T-shirt phase. Dean had such an impact that he still | | | | been given for Christmas that first kindled my interest |
| seems modern today. It's as if he belongs to an | | | | in art. It had pictures of boats and water - mostly oil |
| entirely different world than, say, Jimmy Stewart.It was | | | | paintings - and I was fascinated by the way the |
| the recent passing of two icons from my early years; | | | | reflections in the water had been portrayed. They |
| the great Ray Charles, followed by Marlon Brando | | | | looked so real, and at the same time you could tell |
| which set me thinking about my early influences. | | | | they had been painted. I still try to keep that feeling in |
| Inevitably a lot of them were American. At that time in | | | | my work today. Later on, at art college, I think one of |
| the UK we didn't have many international stars, | | | | the tutors described painting as a dialog between |
| although throughout the history of the cinema there | | | | reality and illusion, but I think what he meant was - it's |
| has been a steady trickle of actors from the UK who | | | | magic. James Donaldson CollinsDonaldson Collins is an |
| have made it big time in the US; Chaplin, Stan Laurel, | | | | artist and writer. |
| Cary Grant (Tony Curtis's atrocious English accent as | | | | He lives in the Scottish Highlands with his wife, |
| the phoney millionaire in 'Some Like it Hot' was based | | | | daughter and three dogs. |
| on Cary Grant's accent), Bob Hope, Hitchcock, the | | | | His interests are history, sci-fi, chess and snooker. |
| beautiful Vivien Leigh, picked from thousands to play | | | | He also claims to play guitar like a ringing a bell. |
| Scarlet O'Hara in 'Gone With the Wind'("I'll think about it | | | | |