DANDLING SONG
The cockroach and the hare
sat up and stared
when the new dark blue cowboys came down.
The wife bounced the cat
more and more on her lap
when the new dark blue cowboys rode into town.
When the new dark blue cowboys came to town
the little brown chub
leapt up on a tub,
the skinny kikimora
squeaked her femora,
and the oven-prong curly
proved quite unruly.
Then the new dark blue cowboys turned into mice
and vanished again through a hole in the ice.
wife – baba, a married peasant woman
kikimora – a very thin female house spirit
oven-prong – ukhvat, a short pitchfork with turned back tips used for putting pots in/out of an oven
With thanks to Sam2 for his motif-friezes © Patrick Miles, 2022
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SOME RESPONSES TO GEORGE CALDERON: EDWARDIAN GENIUS
‘This meticulous yet nimble book is bound to remain the definitive account of Calderon’s life’ Charlotte Jones, The Times Literary Supplement
‘The effort of detection, it must be said, was worth it. The biography is a delight to read.’ Emeritus Professor Laurence Brockliss, The London Magazine
‘It is a masterly synthesis of your own approach with scholarship and very judicious discussion of the evidence.’ Emeritus Professor Catherine Andreyev, historian
‘This comprehensive, meticulously researched and highly readable biography, which the author describes as a “story” rather than an academic biography…’ Michael Pursglove, East-West Review
‘A monumental scholarly masterpiece that gives real insight into how the Edwardians viewed the world.’Arch Tait, Translator of Natalya Rzhevskaya’s Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter
‘The book is written with great assurance and the reader always feels in safe hands. I liked the idea of it being a story and I read it the same way I would read a novel.’ Harvey Pitcher, writer
‘Presents the Edwardian age, and Calderon in particular, as new and forward-looking.’ Emeritus Professor Michael Alexander, in Trinity College, Oxford, Report 2017-18
A review by DAMIAN GRANT appears in the comments to Calderonia’s 7 September post.
A review by JOHN DEWEY appears on Amazon UK.
Fabulous – I hope it turns out to be entirely accurate.