Basic form of the Calderon coat of arms
Frontis piece by Frank Calderon
Monarch Butterfly Madeira
K.N. Das Gupta and Margaret Mitchell in an Indian Dramatic Society production of The Maharani of Arakan, 1913?
The entrance to Fort Brockhurst (picture from Britain’s Past)
Colonel Sir Walter Coote Hedley c. 1920
Book sent to George Calderon in Russia by his mother, Christmas 1895.
Jean Ryckaert, May 1916.
Captain of the 11
George and Kittie Calderon 1905
George Calderon c.1901
Patrick Miles in his summer house, 11 December 2016
George Calderon, 1912
Christmas 1901 Cartoon by George Calderon
A happy memory of Trinity College: undergraduates breakfast together in Downy V. Green, p. 77.
Figure from Gauguin’s 1899 painting ‘Tahitian Women with Mango Blossoms’ (left); George Calderon’s pencil sketch ‘Manu’ (right)
Unpublished watercolour by George Calderon, Tahiti 1906
Sir Richard Vincent Sutton c. 1913
Michel and Vera Fokine in “Scheherazade”, 1914 (The Music And Theatre Library of Sweden, creative commons)Recent Comments
- Jim D G Miles on From the diary of a writer-publisher: 28 Excellent entry, Dad. I like the escape room picture, of course, but the story about the Russian and the hole-in-the-wall is exceptional! (28/03/2024 at 9:58 PM)
- Patrick Miles on Short story: ‘Crox’ Thank you, dear anonymous Theo...it is so refreshing to hear the reaction of a Man of the People! Keep a good grip on those cords! 'Part II'?! The rest is secreted in lines (18/12/2023 at 10:33 PM)
- Theo on Short story: ‘Crox’ Delicious! "Are you being Served?" meets "Keeping up Appearances" via Calderotica. But Patrick, you cannot leave us dangling like that just before Christmas! One thing - c (18/12/2023 at 1:35 PM)
- Patrick Miles on Cambridge Tales 8: ‘Black Tie’ Thank you, Damian, for sharing your problem with us. It's difficult to know what to prescribe. Perhaps try examining the facts of the story (e.g. there are not 6 medics in the (20/11/2023 at 9:44 AM)
- Damian Grant on Cambridge Tales 8: ‘Black Tie’ Patrick: I read your story 'Black Tie' on Monday, and knew immediately that it didn't work for me. There was something forced, factitious; something that didn't let the elemen (17/11/2023 at 2:26 PM)
Tag Archives: biography
‘Spectator’
SAVE IT FOR THE (AMERICAN) NATION! How British archives fail us Patrick Miles It was a biographer’s dream. For decades Russianists had searched in vain for the archive of George Calderon, top Edwardian Slavist and the man who brought Chekhov’s … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian literature, Personal commentary
Tagged American archives, Anton Chekhov, archivists, attics, auction houses, bequests, Bernard Quaritch Ltd, Bertram Rota Ltd, biographies, biography, British archives, Cambridge University Library, celebrity, comments, cultural heritage, dilettantism, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, Gertrude Bell, Harold Pinter, Harvard University, Jane Austen, Joseph Conrad, Kittie Calderon, learned helplessness, media image, patrimony, PR, research value, Rupert Brooke, The Bodleian Library, The British Library, The Calderon Papers, The Houghton Library, The Spectator, The Watsons, V. Pokrovskii, vultures, Wendy Cope
Leave a comment
‘Thunderer’
Curate your own stuff – British archives can’t cope PATRICK MILES Thinking of depositing your family papers in a public archive? Be prepared for nobody to answer your emails, promises to be broken, cataloguing never to happen, and to discover … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian literature, Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary
Tagged accountants, Anton Chekhov, archives, archivists, biographies, biography, British archives, cataloguing, celebrity, collecting, comments, conferences, conservation, curation, Dardanelles, exhibitions, funding, Gallipoli, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, Harold Pinter, Jane Austen, Less Process, Martin Shaw, More Product, PR consultants, The British Library, The Great War, The Watsons, Third Battle of Krithia, United States of America, Wendy Cope, World War I, Ypres
2 Comments
Health Warning
I have decided I must go public about the nine years of frustration that the owner of the Calderon Papers and I endured as we tried to find a permanent home for them in a British archival institution. It was … Continue reading
Posted in Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary
Tagged 'Thunderer', archival management, archive donations, archive sales, archives, biography, British archives, Calderon Family Papers, Cambridge, cataloguing, comments, communication, conservation, customer care, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, Harvard University, Kittie Calderon, The Spectator, The Times
Leave a comment
Weighty Calderonian matters
The above is described in an auction catalogue of 2001 as ‘A Victorian set of jockey scales by Youngs of Bear Street, London WC on oak stand with spiral-turned supports. Width 3ft’. The auction in question was of ‘The Residual Contents … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Edwardian marriage, Personal commentary
Tagged A Room with a View, Anstey Guthrie, biographies, biography, body weight, Boulogne, Catherine Lubbock, Charles Evelyn Pym, Christopher Tebb, comments, Daniel Day Lewis, Dr Albert Tebb, E.M. Forster, Emmetts, Foxwold, Frederic Lubbock, George Calderon, height, Horace Pym, John Pym, Kittie Calderon, R. Ruthven Pym, Violet Pym, visitors books, weighing machine, weighing machines, Windy Corner
3 Comments
From the diary of a writer-publisher: 6
6 December Our post office is inside the local supermarket, and next to the queue is a stand with all the British newspapers. In an Orwellian spirit of studying what people across the whole political spectrum are thinking, I occasionally … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged agnosticism, Amazon, And now the coffin has been lowered, biographies, biography, birds, Calderonia, death, East-West Review, eschatology, Fedor Tiutchev, Four Funerals and a Tyutchev Poem, I grob opushchen uz v mogilu, John Dewey, Labour Party, Lutheranism, Mirror of the Soul: A Life of the Poet Tyutchev, Morning Star, obituary, Protestantism, Russianists, self-publishing, translation
2 Comments
From the diary of a writer-publisher: 5
2 October I arrived in St Andrews as the guest of the best owner of a private archive in Britain, who had unfailingly facilitated and nurtured my work on George’s biography over a period of twenty years, and without whom … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian literature, Edwardian marriage, Personal commentary
Tagged 'Gone with a Basilisk', Acton Reynald, Anton Chekhov, biographies, biography, Brexit, Cambridge Chekhov Company, Cambridge Festival, comments, Cromwell: Mall o' Monks, Edinburgh Festival, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, Jim Corbet, Kittie Calderon, Lesbia Corbet, Manya Ross, Nina Corbet, Pall Mall Gazette, Peter the Great, Queen Victoria, Russia, Samuel Hynes, Sir Walter Corbet, St Andrews, St Petersburg, Susan de Guardiola, The Cherry Orchard, The Edwardian Turn of Mind
Leave a comment
A TLS review!!!
I was rendered soundless and motionless last Thursday when a stalwart subscriber emailed to tell me that a full-length review of George Calderon: Edwardian Genius had appeared that morning in The Times Literary Supplement. A Zen moment indeed. For consider: … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Edwardian marriage, Personal commentary
Tagged Anglo-Russian cultural relations, Anton Chekhov, Ballets Russes, biographies, biography, Calderonia, Charlotte Jones, comments, Constance Garnett, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, Kittie Calderon, Laurence Binyon, Laurence Sterne, life-writing, modernism, Nina Corbet, Professor Rose of Leipzig, reviews, Russomania, Tahiti, The Seagull, Times Literary Supplement, TLS, Tristram Shandy, William John Rose
2 Comments
From the diary of a writer-publisher: 4
16 August Walked from King’s Cross arriving at Foyles in Charing Cross Road 10.00 a.m. to pick up unsold copies of George. Was intending to walk with them from there to the National Theatre, but by now it was raining … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian literature, Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary
Tagged Annotranslate, Anton Chekhov, biographies, biography, Blithe Spirit, bookshops, British Library, butterflies, Che Guevara, comments, Cossus cossus, dragonflies, fishing, Foyles, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, Goat Moth, haiku, Haiku Quarterly, Heywood Hill, honesty pods, Horatio Nelson, John Sandoe Books, Laurence Brockliss, Lesbia Corbet, Meiji, National Theatre, poetry magazines, Presence, tench, The Great War, William Beatty, willow, World War I
Leave a comment
And Professor Rose was not German!
Probably the biggest remaining mystery of George’s biography is: what happened to all his papers associated with researching Slavonic folklore and primitive religions? The book Demon Feasts (or whatever it would have been entitled) was, after all, to be his … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Personal commentary
Tagged Basil Pares, Bernard Pares, biographies, biography, Cambridge, Canada, comments, Congress for the History of Religions, Demon Feasts, folklore, Fritz Epstein, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, history of religions, Kittie Calderon, Leipzig, Manitoba, Mass., Michael Pursglove, Minnedosa, mysteries, Oxford, Percy Lubbock, Poland, Professor Rose of Leipzig, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, serendipity, Silesia, SSEES, The Great War, William John Rose, World War I, Ypres, Zbigniew Folejewski
Leave a comment
The ‘mysterious’ Mrs Shapter no more
You have a hunch, it proves right, and your rejoicing and self-satisfaction know no bounds… Then you sit back and contemplate the chain of circumstances that led to it being ‘proven right’, and you realise the links were so fortuitous, … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged Alexander I, Amiens, biographies, biography, British Museum, Chantrey Bequest, Clara Calderon, comments, Dawlish, Exeter, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, Harry Leeke Gibbs, Ivan Nestor Schnurmann, John Shapter, Mary Ann Angliss, Mary Ann Jane Shapter, Mary Gibbs Shapter, Michael Pursglove, Michael Welch, Miss Shapter, Mrs Shapter, Nicholas I, P.H. Calderon, Royal Academy, Rugby School, Russia, Russian language, St Elizabeth of Hungary's Great Act of Renunciation, St Petersburg, Thomas Shapter
2 Comments
The ‘mystery’ Misses and Misters
The academics are off campus now until September/October, when Sam&Sam plan a new marketing storm in their direction, so we are concentrating on selling boxes of six copies to more bookshops. If you know any near you who might be … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Personal commentary
Tagged Amazon, Anton Chekhov, biographies, biography, comments, East-West Review, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, John Polkinghorne, marketing, Michael Pursglove, Mrs Shapter, P.H. Calderon, Professor Rose, Rochelle Townsend, Sam&Sam, Uncle Vanya, What Can We Hope For?
Leave a comment
From the diary of a writer-publisher: 3
14 May I gather, from a reliable source, that access to Calderonia has been blocked in Russia (I nearly said ‘the Soviet Union’). This would explain why no Russian viewers have featured in the stats for months. One can only … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian literature, Heroism and Adventure, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged Akala, Amazon, biographies, biography, British Council, Calderonia, Clays Ltd, comments, cyber warfare, Earlham, Edward Lear, eschatology, Gallipoli, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, haiku, James Tait Black Prize, Jenny Uglow, John Dewey, John Polkinghorne, Kittie Calderon, Leonid Brezhnev, Marie Colvin, paradise, Percy Lubbock, plastic, pollution, ravens, Russia, Sam&Sam, Sam2, self-publishing, Shetland, Simon Cooke, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, Vladimir Putin, wokefulness, World War I, Yell
Leave a comment
From the diary of a writer-publisher: 2
18 April The shortlist for this year’s James Tait Black Memorial Prize (biography) has been announced. Strong contenders are hip-hop artist Akala’s debut Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire and Susannah Walker’s The Life of Stuff: A … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian literature, Personal commentary
Tagged Agency for the Legal Deposit Libraries, Andrew Tatham, biographies, biography, Calderón, Calderonia, comments, copyright libraries, Dardanelles, doorstops, Gallipoli, George Calderon, James Tait Black Prize, legal deposits, marketing, owls, publishers, quangos, Sam&Sam, Sam2, Spanish Ambassador, The Great War, Tinker, Victor Meldrew, World War I
2 Comments
From the diary of a writer-publisher: 1
27 March Took the train asap to Daunt Books in Hampstead. They had emailed that ‘unfortunately we haven’t sold a copy and if you don’t collect them they will be given to a charity shop’. That’s £180 worth of books! … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian literature, Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary
Tagged biographies, biography, comments, Dardanelles, Daunt Books, Ed Maggs, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Germany, GPO, Hampstead Heath, independent publishing, Maggs Bros. Ltd, Post Office, Stig Abell, string, The Great War, Times Literary Supplement
1 Comment
Guest post: Andrew Tatham, ‘A Group Photograph and the Pursuit of Personal History’
If there’s anything to be learned from biography it is that chance meetings can change lives. I first met Patrick Miles next to the warmth of the Aga in my cousin’s kitchen in 2006. I had met many of my … Continue reading →