Author Archives: Patrick Miles

A year of hope

Posted on January 1, 2023 by Patrick Miles

A happy new year to subscribers and viewers, and thank you sincerely for following us through our ninth year of existence. The question of Calderonia’s future is always in my mind, but I can assure you we shall continue at … Continue reading →

Posted in Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary | Tagged A Message from Ukraine, BASEES, BASEES Conference, Boris Johnson, Bucha, Cambridge, comments, courage, despair, Dnepro, Elon Musk, hope, Joe Biden, Justin Welby, Kiev, Kyiv, New Year messages, pandemics, Russia, Sam&Sam, the pandemic, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky | Leave a comment

Christmas in Moscow, 1969

Posted on December 21, 2022 by Patrick Miles

Leningrad, … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged ballet, biographies, biography, Bolshoi Theatre, British Embassy, Brussels sprouts, caviar, Christmas, Christmas Day, comments, coq au vin, George Calderon, Gorki Park, hoarfrost, Leningrad, Maya Plisetskaya, Moscow, Moscow University, Odette, Patrick Miles, prima ballerina assoluta, rime, Russia, skating, Swan Lake | 1 Comment

Mending into…

Posted on December 7, 2022 by Patrick Miles

In my mind’s eye, I can see George Calderon opening this book and chuckling with delight — not just because it was written (and gorgeously illustrated) by a great-granddaughter of his close friend ‘Evey’ Pym, but because it exemplifies something … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged anatomy, Bill Smith, biographies, Celia Pym, chaotic systems, Charles Evelyn Pym, comments, Elizabeth Pym, Evey Pym, evil eye, Fair Isle, George Calderon, Hope Pym, Jim Ivory, Judy Auerbach, jumpers, Kazimir Malevich, knitting, Lara Veitch, Lolu Oluwole-Ojo, mending, Monte Carlo Opera House, moth infestations, murmurations, Piet Mondrian, Pseuds Corner, pullovers, Roland Pym, silk, snowflakes, Suprematism, sweaters, teazles, Treasures from a Ragpile, Victoria & Albert Museum, Vivien Leigh, Women's Home Industries, Wool | 1 Comment

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 19

Posted on November 28, 2022 by Patrick Miles

4 November On its back page, the voluminous weekly DIE ZEIT, which I still think is the best newspaper in Europe, always carries a large photograph of an animal looking at the camera with a distinctive expression, and the caption … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged Adolf Hitler, Alexander Korotko, China, choughs, chrysanthemums, comments, Die Zeit, Edward Lear, emeritus professors, Georg Trakl, haiku, images, Iona, Islay, Kherson, malt whisky, Mexico, Osip Mandel'shtam, peace conferences, professors, Russo-Ukrainian War, soap, soapstone, Sudetenland, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky, war poems, war poetry, whiskies, Winston Churchill | 3 Comments

Was there an ‘Edwardian Age’, and was it ‘great’?

Posted on November 14, 2022 by Patrick Miles

When I began to read George and Kittie Calderon’s archive for my biography of them both, I little thought I would be drawn deeper and deeper into the question of ‘Edwardianism’. Yet I instantly felt as I read George’s letters … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Edwardian marriage, Modern parallels, Personal commentary | Tagged Adrian Gregory, Alison Miles, Bertrand Russell, Carolean Age, Charles III, chauvinism, comments, culturonomics, D.H. Lawrence, Damian Grant, Dardanelles, Diana Princess of Wales, Edward VII, Edwardianism, Elizabeth I, Elizabeth II, Ephraim Parker Oakes, Gallipoli, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, George VI, Georgian Age, H.G. Wells, Henry James, John Pym, Kittie Calderon, Laurence Brockliss, Maria Page, Mesopotamia, New Elizabethan Age, Oliver Moody, Peter Brent, PTSD, Queen Victoria, Robert Baden-Powell, The Great War, Tony Blair, Trinity College Oxford, William Page, World War I, Ypres | 2 Comments

Guest post by Damian Grant: D.H. Lawrence’s ‘Odour of Chrysanthemums’

Posted on October 31, 2022 by Patrick Miles

‘All feelings belong to the body, and are only recognized by the mind.’ This statement by Lawrence can be taken as a categorical refutation of another manner of presenting human beings in fiction, one which was touched on by Patrick … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Edwardian marriage | Tagged 'Odour of Chrysanthemums', A Propos of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover', chrysanthemums, coal mines, D.H. Lawrence, Elizabeth Bates, George Eliot, Henry James, Michael Bell, miners, mining disasters, Patrick Miles, psychology, the body, The Engolish Novel, The Prussian Officer and Other Stories, The Rainbow, The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd, Walter Bates, Women in Love, World War I | 6 Comments

Henry James: Edwardian writer par excellence?

Posted on October 17, 2022 by Patrick Miles

No series of posts about the ‘Edwardian Era’ would be complete without a reference to Henry James, often regarded as its greatest novelist. I have always admired his short stories. I have read ‘Daisy Miller’ every few years since 1974 … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Edwardian marriage, Personal commentary | Tagged A Room with a View, Acton Reynald, affluence, Ann Veronica, Anton Chekhov, Battle of the Somme, Cambridge Daily News, Coal Strike 1912, comments, conscience, Daisy Miller, Dardanelles, dialogue, E.M. Forster, ethics, F.R. Leavis, Gallipoli, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, H.G. Wells, Henry James, human body, Joseph Conrad, journalism, Kittie Calderon, Lady Corbet, Lady with a Little Dog, Laurence Brockliss, loquaciousness, mobility, morality, Mudie's Library, Nina Corbet, novels, psychology, renunciation, sex life, short stories, Tahiti, The Ambassadors, The Edwardian Era, The Edwardians, The Great War, The Lady with the Little Dog, The Wings of the Dove, travel, What Maisie Knew, World War I | 2 Comments

Guest post by Laurence Brockliss: In Search of the Edwardians

Posted on September 26, 2022 by Patrick Miles

Since the beginning of recorded time, chroniclers and historians have used the reigns of princely houses and individual monarchs, and later the periods of office of presidents and political leaders, as a framing device to bring a semblance of order … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Edwardian marriage, Personal commentary | Tagged affluence, Aileen Alison Furse, Barnes Wallis, Butskellism, Charles Darwin, Edward Baines, edward Stephen Gladstone Wickham, Edward VII, Edwardian Age, Edwardian Era, Elisabeth Wicksteed, Elizabeth II, Frogmore, George Gissing, George Orwell, George V, George VI, Great Depression, H.G. Wells, Harold Ayde Prichard, Ireland, John Stanhope Baines, Joseph Kentigern Haydon, Kim Philby, Labour Party, Leeds, Leeds Mercury, Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, Percival Tookey Leigh, Peterloo, poverty, Queen Victoria, The Edwardians, The Lusitania, Victorian Era, Welfare State, William Ewart Gladstone, World War I | 1 Comment

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 18

Posted on September 12, 2022 by Patrick Miles

8 August I introduced this summer’s ‘Edwardian Return’ series of posts on 4 June, but it really kicked in with Alison’s guest post ‘Edwardian grandmothers’, which as I write has been up for a week and has another to go. … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian character, Modern parallels, Personal commentary | Tagged Alison Miles, ante-cruciate ligament, Basil Bunting, Bloodaxe Books, British Empire, Chernobyl, chinoiserie, Comfrey, counter offensives, D.H. Lawrence, Damian Grant, Die Zeit, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dnepro, Faber & Faber, floral messages, foreign travel, Foxwold, Gary Kasparov, guest posts, herbal remedies, howitzers, icons, Jesus Christ, John Pym, John Russell Brown, Kherson, knee injuries, Laurence Brockliss, Lucas Cranach, Michael Triegel, Mikhail Bakhtin, Mikhail Gorbachev, missiles, mystery object, National Theatre, Naumburg, Nezavisimaia gazeta, penguins, prosopography, rudeness, Snake Island, soapstone, St Mauritius, St Paul, St Peter, subjectivity, The Edwardians, The Moskva, The New Dark Blue Cowboys, The Virgin Mary, The Wailing Wall, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Zaporozhzhia | Leave a comment

George Calderon’s New Drama

Posted on September 5, 2022 by Patrick Miles

Naturally, my foray into short videos had to end with one about George. I suddenly thought that although the contribution of his own plays to Edwardian ‘New Drama’ is now largely forgotten, one could claim that Chekhov’s plays, which he … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Edwardian marriage, Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary | Tagged Anton Chekhov, biographies, biography, comments, Constance Garnett, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, George Bernard Shaw, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, Glasgow Repertory Theatre, Granville Barker, John Galsworthy, Khodynka Disaster, Khodynka Field, Kittie Calderon, New Drama, Oxford, Oxford Playhouse, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, politics, Russia, St John Hankin, Tahiti, The Cherry Orchard, The Fountain, The Great War, The Seagull, Third Battle of Krithia, William Shakespeare, World War I | Leave a comment

Guest post by John Pym: Games Ancient and Modern

Posted on August 22, 2022 by Patrick Miles

An eight-minute video, La Roue, No. 29, in the series ‘Children’s Games’ by the artist Francis Alÿs: A barefoot boy in a green and yellow football shirt and red shorts – the colours of the Congo national football team – … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Edwardian marriage, Modern parallels, Personal commentary | Tagged 'Children's Games', A Room with a View, bicycles, Brasted, Brigadier-General Sir John Gough V.C., bumble puppy, card games, Carol Taylor, croquet, E.M. Forster, Etoile copper mine, Evey Pym, Foxwold, Francis Alÿs, Frank Calderon, games, George Calderon, golf, gun cabinet, guns, horses, Hoyle's Rules, Jack Pym, James Ivory, John Pym, Kittie Calderon, La Roue, Lubumbashi, Mahjong, Mampala, Merchant Ivory Productions, Mia Fothergill, Minnie Beebe, play, riding, Roland Pym, Roya Lubbock, Ruth Jhabvala, shooting, Simon Callow, Sir Edmund Backhouse, The Congo, The Great War, The Sacred Lake, tricycle, Up Jenkins, Venice Biennale, Violet Pym, Windy Corner, World War I | 1 Comment

Mayakovsky’s pancake

Posted on August 15, 2022 by Patrick Miles

It may seem surprising that I can bring myself to say anything positive about Russians at a time when their country has become, to quote Joseph Conrad again, ‘the negation of everything worth living for’. But, of course, these four … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged Aleksei Suvorin, Alfred Dreyfus, anecdotes, Anton Chekhov, Anton Chekhov: A Short Life, biographies, comments, Dreyfus Affair, Lev Trotsky, literary anecdotes, Literature and Revolution, love, love at first sight, Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, Narkom, pancakes, parallel lines, People's Commissar, proverbs, Shrove Tuesday, Shrovetide, steppe, Vladimir Mayakovsky | Leave a comment

Guest post by Alison Miles: Edwardian grandmothers?

Posted on August 1, 2022 by Patrick Miles

Both my grandmothers were children during the reign of Edward VII. My paternal grandmother Dorothy Mabel Angus (Granny Thomas) was born on 2 December 1897 and my maternal grandmother Eleanor Frances Ashton (Granny Goodfield) on 7 April 1898. Granny Thomas … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian marriage, Modern parallels, Personal commentary | Tagged Africa, Arras, Arts and Crafts, Ashton Family, Battle of Arras, British Empire, Cardiff, Cardiff University, class system, comments, David Ashotn, Dorothy Mabel Angus, education, Edwardian furnishings, Edwardian furniture, Edwardian homes, Edwardian period, Eleanor Frances Ashton, family photographs, Franz Schubert, grandparents, housework, India, John Mortimer Angus, Ludwig van Beethoven, meningitis, missionaries, music-making, nannies, Norman Angus, Received Pronunciation, servants, snobbery, social mobility, social status, souvenirs, The Great War, Thomas Family, Victorian period, World War I | Leave a comment

‘Chekhov’s Gun’ (Concluded)

Posted on July 25, 2022 by Patrick Miles

In this concluding video on the subject of Chekhov’s Gun, I give a thumbnail sketch of its application in his own plays from Ivanov (1887) to The Cherry Orchard (1904). Since the phrase is so popular (yes, really, I have … Continue reading →

Posted in Modern parallels, Personal commentary | Tagged Anton Chekhov, bee-brooch, biographies, biography, breaking string, chaos theory, Chekhov's Gun, Chekhovian, comments, commercial theatre, contingency, cucumber, fortuitousness, galoshes, Ivanov, MacGuffin, The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull, The Wood Demon, Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya | 1 Comment

The Isle of Wight Entente of 1909

Posted on July 18, 2022 by Patrick Miles

If there is one book that I wish I had been able to read when I was researching my biography of George Calderon, it is the one above, published last year. A quarter of it (pp. 231-336) deals with the … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian character, Modern parallels, Personal commentary | Tagged Alfred Wareing, Alix of Hesse, Anglo-British relations, Anton Chekhov, Arthur Hendesron, biographies, Britain and the Isle of Wight, Cheka, comments, Deptford, Edward VII, Ekaterinburg, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, Glasgow Repertory Theatre, H.H. Asquith, holiday reading, Isle and Empires: Romanov Russia, Isle of Wight, Nicholas II, Osborne House, Peter the Great, Prince Albert, Queen Victoria, Romania, Russo-British relations, Sir Edward Grey, Spithead, Stephan Roman, stratsoterptsy, The Great War, The Seagull, Triple Entente, William Gerhardie, World War I | Leave a comment

‘Chekhov’s Gun’ (To be continued)

Posted on July 11, 2022 by Patrick Miles

Sam2 has persuaded me to make four short videos about my recently published short biography of Chekhov and my ra-ther longer 2018 biography of George Calderon. I am completely new to the genre, therefore you should not expect a slick … Continue reading →