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