Jean Ryckaert, May 1916.
George Calderon, 1912
A happy memory of Trinity College: undergraduates breakfast together in Downy V. Green, p. 77.
Colonel Sir Walter Coote Hedley c. 1920
Basic form of the Calderon coat of arms
The entrance to Fort Brockhurst (picture from Britain’s Past)
Sir Richard Vincent Sutton c. 1913
Patrick Miles in his summer house, 11 December 2016
K.N. Das Gupta and Margaret Mitchell in an Indian Dramatic Society production of The Maharani of Arakan, 1913?
Michel and Vera Fokine in “Scheherazade”, 1914 (The Music And Theatre Library of Sweden, creative commons)
Unpublished watercolour by George Calderon, Tahiti 1906
George and Kittie Calderon 1905
George Calderon c.1901
Book sent to George Calderon in Russia by his mother, Christmas 1895.
Figure from Gauguin’s 1899 painting ‘Tahitian Women with Mango Blossoms’ (left); George Calderon’s pencil sketch ‘Manu’ (right)
Captain of the 11
Frontis piece by Frank Calderon
Christmas 1901 Cartoon by George Calderon
Monarch Butterfly MadeiraRecent 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: Cambridge
Cambridge Tales 8: ‘Black Tie’
Posted in Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged black ties, brain haemorrhages, Cambridge, Cambridge Tales, college life, Dante, funerals, Jonathan Palmer, Mikhail Bakhtin, mourning, Peter Cathercole, postgraduates, student pranks, The Divine Comedy, The Iliad, The University Arms, undergraduates, undertakers, wakes
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Cambridge Tales 7: ‘The Folding Party’
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Tagged Bedroom, Blue Pagoda, Cambridge, Cambridge Tales, Carcanet, Chris Hardie, Friedrich Hölderlin, G.W.F. Hegel, Gitanes, haiku, Helios, John Milton, Julian Slawianski, Karl Marx, Leonard Cohen, parties, Pink Floyd, poetry, poetry magazines, River Cam, students, suicide, Tintagel, undergraduates
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Very Old Cambridge Tales: 2
SNAPSHOTS OF CAMBRIDGE ‘Ron Shakespeare’, a casual at the Arts, was so plastered the other evening that he actually got caught on stage at the end of a scene-change. The Stage Manager did his nut and threatened this time to … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged anecdotes, Arts Theatre, Bird Sanctuary, butterflies, Cambridge, Cambridge colleges, Cambridge Tales, Cambridge University Library, dry-stone walls, fishing tackle, Gallyon's, gardeners, General Election, hummingbirds, Junior Bursar, Labour Party, liberalism, moral philosophy, Nigeria, Ron Shakespeare, snapshots, Trinity College, United States of America, William Gerhardie
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A writer-publisher’s Ukrainian diary: 3
11 April 2022 Whilst coming back from the shop with today’s newspaper, I could see a neighbour on the other side of the street who was born at the gates of Mauthausen concentration camp six days before it was liberated … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 'The Steppe', Anton Chekhov, appeasement, Bellingcat, Bletchley, Cambridge, Crimea, Czechoslovakia, Dnipro, Donbas, Donetsk, FSB, KGB, Mauthausen, Max Hastings, morale, NATO, Nazi Germany, Polonia, Russia, Sergei Beseda, Simferopol, steppeland, tank battles, The Times, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky, Yalta, Yasinovataya, Zhdanov
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Guest post by Jim Miles: ‘DONG!’
The most striking aspect of Japan, right from the moment I arrived, was how different from the UK it wasn’t. People talk about culture shock and in particular how Japan ‘just does things differently’ (often with an almost-patronising ‘isn’t this … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged bells, Buddhist monks, Buddhist temples, Cambridge, Casillero del Diablo, Christmas, culture shock, England, etiquette, food, friendliness, Goto family, islands, James Miles, Japan, KFC, kindergarten, language teaching, New Year, population densities, Shōgatsu, Snickers, Toyohashi, traffic lights
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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
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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
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Heffers surrenders after 7-month siege
As well as online and by personal communication with me, my biography of George Calderon can now be bought at the following bookshops: Blackwell’s of Oxford, Daunts of Hampstead, Foyles of Charing Cross Road, Jarrolds of Norwich, the National Archives … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian English, Personal commentary
Tagged biographies, Blackwell's, Cambridge, comments, Daunts, Foyles, George Calderon, Heffers, independent publishing, Jarrolds, marketing, National Archives, Oxford, Polonia, publishers, sale or return, Sam&Sam, selling books, Victor Meldrew
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The Announcement
We have now received the book in Cambridge — and we think Clays Ltd have done a superb job! Any flaws you notice will be of the author’s making; Clays have printed to the last foreign font and idiosyncrasy … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian literature, Edwardian marriage, Heroism and Adventure, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged ABE, Amazon, Andrew Tatham, biographies, biography, Cambridge, Clays Ltd, comments, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, Georgina Aldridge, Harvey Pitcher, Jodi Foulgar, John Dewey, Kindle, Kittie Calderon, limited edition, Martin Shaw, Nielsen Corporation, Oxford, publishers, Sam&Sam, St Andrews, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, World War I, Ypres
2 Comments
A skipped life
For my taste, this book is the most innovative biography since Ruth Scurr’s John Aubrey: My Own Life (see 15 October 2016). Although reviewed positively when it appeared last year, it is so original that I defy anyone to get their head quite round … Continue reading
Posted in Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged 'real time', A Life Discarded, Alexander Masters, biographies, biography, Cambridge, diaries, fiction, graphologists, John Aubrey: My Own Life, Laura Francis, Laurence Sterne, private detectives, Ruth Scurr, Simon: The Genius in my Basement, Stuart: A Life Backwards, Tristram Shandy
4 Comments
Guest post: Alison Miles, ‘Living with George and Kittie since the mid-1980s’
When I first heard about George Calderon it was the mid-1980s and my time was mainly taken up with small children. However I realised that something big was starting when Patrick went to Scotland to visit an attic full of … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian marriage, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged Alison Miles, biography, Cambridge, Cap Gris Nez, comments, Eastcote, Elizabeth I, Elizabeth Pym, Foxwold, George Calderon, Jack Pym, Jim Corbet, Karen Spink, Kennington, Kittie Calderon, La Sirene, Moreton Corbet, Nina Corbet, Patrick Miles, Petersfield, Robin Britcher, Roland Pym, Scotland, Sheet, Sir Walter Raleigh, Vincent Corbet, White Raven
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Watch this Space
6/4/16. I have now revised 96% of my book George Calderon: Edwardian Genius. The last chapter, covering Kittie’s life 1923-1950, feels too close still (I finished the second draft only two months ago) to tackle, so I am limiting myself to … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged Addenbrooke's Hospital, Belgium, biographies, biography, British Expeditionary Force, Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, Clare College, commemoration, comments, Dardanelles, David Kindersley, Eric Gill, First Eastern General Hospital, George Calderon, Joseph Cribb, Joseph Griffiths, King's College, Kittie Calderon, Mediterranean Force, Philomena Guillebaud, Territorial Army, The Great War, World War I
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Very Old Cambridge Tales 5: ‘Stone’s Story’
‘Will you be going to Russia again?’ I asked Stone as we arrived back at his rooms from the college dinner he had stood me. ‘Not if I can help it!’ he retorted, unlocking the door and walking straight across … Continue reading →