The violinist was just 15 years old when I first met her in 2003. She’d just left the Yehudi Menuen school and her future already seemed assured, though I doubt even then either of us could have imagined just how successful she would become. She is now one of classical music’s most articulate and capable advocates, as a performer and as director of the Edinburgh International Festival. Back in 2003, dressed in fluffy pink slippers and a cardy, she played me a snatch of Henry Vieuxtemps’ Violin Concerto Number 5. It sounded amazing, but she wasn’t happy with it. That drive for perfection may explain why she has gone as far as she has.
Jodie Foster
The term “child actor” carries a lot of baggage. But there are some actors who come through the experience seemingly unscathed. Foster appears to be one of them. She has gone on to have a hugely successful career, but it’s worth remembering just how impressive a screen presence she was from an early age. She was just 12 when she appeared in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver; a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination, but before that she’d made a real impression in a small role in Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Her interactions with Alfred Lutter III (another standout child actor who didn’t pursue acting into adulthood) had a real freshness and charm to them.
Kate Bush
The Man with the Child in His Eyes
Let’s begin with a song that seems full of wisdom written by a 13-year-old. The follow-up single to Kate Bush’s debut Wuthering Heights, The Man with the Child in His Eyes is in some ways a more conventional song than her breakthrough hit – chosen deliberately as a follow-up to show that she was not a gimmick but a serious singer-songwriter. But that rather underplays its own otherness. Bush’s treated calls of “He’s here” at the beginning are straight out of a 1970s British folk horror movie and the song itself – gilded by one of Bush’s prettiest vocal performances – could be read as a ghost story. It’s blurry on what is real and what is imagination. But what’s not in doubt is the beauty of the result.
Shelagh Delaney
Shelagh Delaney was just 18 when she wrote her taboo-busting play A Taste of Honey, during a fortnight off work, 19 when it was first performed, 20 when it transferred to the West End and 21 when she co-wrote the film version that made another teenager, Rita Tushingham, a star. Delaney, who grew up in Salford, had left school at 17 and worked in a variety of jobs including as a clerk and an usherette before she sat down to write. The result was a working-class vision of teenage pregnancy and sexuality that brought a new voice to British theatre.
Jean-Michel Basquiat
The graffiti artist turned 1980s art superstar was dead by the age of 27 (from an unintentional heroin overdose) so he burned brightly, but briefly. Yet one could say that his reputation has continued to grow in the years since his death in 1988. These days you can buy Basquiat bathmats, candles, even sports bras. An original Basquiat painting will set you back between £20m and £50m, however.
Orson Welles
The ultimate boy wonder. Welles made his name on Broadway at the age of 20 with his “Voodoo” Macbeth featuring an all-black cast. He was 23 when he adapted HG Wells’s War of the Worlds for radio, causing some people to believe an alien invasion was actually happening. Two years later he was given carte blanche to make Citizen Kane, still one of Hollywood’s greatest achievements, though that tag sometimes disguises just how much fun it is. The argument is that the rest of Welles’s career was a sad diminuendo, which is both untrue (he would go on to make a handful of films in trying circumstances that are full of life and light), and also beside the point when you’ve made one of the greatest films in cinematic history.
Daniel Sloss
Precocious is the word. The Scottish stand-up made his first appearance on stage in 2007 when he was 17 having been mentored by Frankie Boyle. By 2010 he was already on the telly and he has gone on to create 13 solo shows he has toured around the world. There have also been Netflix specials. Now in his late thirties he has retained his youthful self-belief (some might feel it shades into arrogance), but offset with a healthy dose of self-awareness. He can stray into uncomfortable areas but it’s all part and parcel of his laudable desire to be the best stand-up comedian in the world. In August he will bring his latest show Bitter to the Edinburgh Fringe.
Christopher Kane
The fashion designer from Newarthill made his name fresh out of Central Saint Martins with his debut fashion show in 2006 which featured fluorescent bandage dresses that were immediately picked up by retailers in London, Milan and Paris. He was the hottest name in British fashion in the noughties and was hired by Donatella Versace to helm the Versace sister line Versus. He closed his namesake label in 2023 after the French conglomerate Kering sold their stake, but this autumn he’s returning with his debut collection for Mulberry.
Stephen Shore
The American photographer was only 14 when the Museum of Modern Art in New York bought three of his photographs. A decade later, in 1971, he became the first living photographer to be exhibited at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. The following year he hit the road and began to photograph the America he saw from motel rooms and the car window. The resulting images – along with his contemporary William Eggleston – helped establish the use of colour as a legitimate tool in art photography.
Roddy Frame
And finally back to music and another boy wonder, this time from East Kilbride. As the frontman of Aztec Camera, Frame had a very successful 1980s but he’s been a much more elusive figure in recent years (a new record or a tour would be great, Roddy). He made his mark early. He wrote the song We Could Send Letters when he was just 15, which is hard to believe. Like Kate Bush, the lyrics suggested he was wise beyond his years. A novelistic take on youthful love and break-ups, it is full of mystery and taps into a trembling depth of feeling. Teenage dreams, so hard to beat.
