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