A portrait of R B Cunninghame Graham, (1852 - 1936) one of the most influential men in Scottish literary and political life in the 20th century - by far the most glamorous and romantic. With Scottish and Spanish aristocratic blood in his veins - he was often called the uncrowned King of Scots due to his family's claim to the throne through their ancestor Robert II. His life spanned several continents and cultures, all of which he touched and in all of which he is revered.

In the opening programme in the archive series from 1999, Billy Kay introduces us to the major themes in the writer's life and highlights the range of great men of his day that he influenced. Here he tells the story of the writers privileged background and his early years on his estates at Gartmore and Ardoch, followed by his education at Harrow. We also hear the fantastic story of how as a teenage boy, he went off to Argentina, got swept up in a revolutionary army and had a "gap year" project which lasted seven years as a Gaucho, or cowboy out on the frontier of the Pampas!

Contributors to the original series included Rennie McOwan, his great niece Lady Polwarth, her son, the writer Jamie Jauncey, Gustavo San Roman of St Andrews University, the poet George Bruce, his biographers Cedric Watts of Sussex University and Laurence Davies of Dartmouth College, USA, film maker Murray Grigor and Muriel Gibson who recalled seeing him on horseback leading the Bannockburn rallies of the Scottish National Party in the 1930's. Show less