Of storms, heartthrobs and Darby O'Gill

The latest "annoyingly named storm" currently swamping the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers is called "Aiden".

The spelling may be different, but any excuse for some gratuitous pictures of the lovely Mr Turner...

Drooling aside, sad news has arrived today - the "archetypal James Bond" Sean Connery is dead.

• Read my tribute to him just this August, on the occasion of his 90th birthday.

Mr Connery was well-known for his "hard-man" roles, but in just about every part he played, there was always that slight twinkle in his eye that said he wasn't taking himself entirely seriously...

...which is probably just as well in this early role, in which he was called upon to sing!

Sean Connery - Pretty Irish Girl

RIP, Sir Thomas Sean Connery (25th August 1930 – 31st October 2020)

Mishter Bond

Amidst yet another jumble of mismatched celebrants, including Leonard Bernstein, Elvis Costello, Ruby Keeler, Mel Ferrer, Rob Halford, Van Johnson, Tim Burton, Dorothea Tanning, Billy Ray Cyrus, George Stubbs, Claudia Schiffer, Frederick Forsyth, Michael Rennie, Ivan the Terrible, Gene Simmons, Ludwig I of Bavaria, Joanne Whalley, Martin Amis and Alexander Skarsgård, it is (remarkably) the 90th birthday today of the first, and some say the best, James Bond - Sean Connery!



Voted the "Sexiest Man of the Century” (in 1999), and "Scotland's Greatest Living National Treasure" (in 2011), as well as (for his "James Bond") "the third-greatest hero in cinema history" (in 2003), we once again raise a glass to one of Great Britain's most celebrated actors [and quite the hunk in his heyday].

Many happy returns, Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25th August 1930)

Shaken, not stirred

"I admit I'm being paid well, but it's no more than I deserve. After all, I've been screwed more times than a hooker."

Happy 80th birthday today to Scotland's greatest export, Sir Thomas Sean Connery!

The original (and some may argue, the best) James Bond, Mr Connery in fact began his career as a bodybuilder and model, before being talent-spotted for the movies.



Right from the start, his tough Edinburgh upbringing became the talk of the gossip columns, not least for the occasion when he knocked out the gangster boyfriend of one of his early co-stars Lana Turner, and his womanising (and views on women in general) were controversial.

Nevertheless, it seems that many women (and queens) of my acquaintance would gladly fall at the great man's feet given half a chance. The sexiness of Sean Connery has somewhat eluded me personally, I have to admit - but if I were Natalie Wood in this clip from his first starring role in the film Darby O'Gill and the Little People and I had stumbled across him in the woods, I think I would have done more than listen to him sing...

Sean Connery sings!