Sir Sean Connery in Edinburgh today to unveil new statue
08-Sep-2004 • Event
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The James Bond actor will be in his home town of Edinburgh to pull the drapes off Sandy's memorial monument to world-renowned Scots writer Robert Louis Stevenson.
And Renfrewshire Provost Ronnie Burns and his wife Helen will be at the ceremony.
The Provost joked: "I've gone up in my wife's estimation now. As soon as I heard Sean Connery would be doing the unveiling, I called back and said, 'Can my wife come?'"
The provost revealed Mrs Burns is a big fan of the famous actor, who is probably the most famous James Bond of all.
"It's a big plus mark for me from my wife," Mr Burns joked.
The Labour politician said he was looking forward to meeting the star, despite his well-known allegiance to the Scottish National Party.
"We might disagree about politics, but Sean Connery does a lot for the country, and if he's in a film, I want to see it," he said.
The new sculpture of Stevenson was commissioned by brewers Scottish & Newcastle for their site at Corstorphine, in Edinburgh.
The monument is located at an important spot in the story of Stevenson's famous novel, Kidnapped.
It is on the Hill of Corstorphine that Alan Breck and David Balfour bid one another farewell.
It is at a crossing of the Glasgow Road, to the far west of Edinburgh, that Balfour first sees evidence of government power in a company of Dragoons marching to fifes and drums.
As well as representing Breck and Balfour, the monument presents a profile medallion of Stevenson set into the rubble masonry of a plinth erected in a newly-created niche in Corstorphine Wall.
The top of the plinth has large statues of the two men, with Breck holding up the famous talisman - a cross with a button at the crux - which he constructed in the wood above Loch Leven for the delivery of a crucial message to one of his illiterate kinsmen.
Thanks to `Ken` for the alert.
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