4 September 2026
Like many other people, I’m sure, I would love to say to Amazon: ‘You’re fired!’ To my chagrin, however, I have to admit the moment hasn’t quite come. In 2019, when we started publishing Sam&Sam paperbacks through them, you got the first proof back within three weeks, you could pay for any number of further proofs until you were satisfied, then the book went to press. Those were your only costs before reasonable Amazon royalties were charged on each copy they printed. It was incredibly efficient, cheap, and high quality printing. I remember saying to Goat2 at the time that this business model couldn’t endure, because of the gathering tsunami of people who would want to see themselves in print. This year we submitted the complete typeset WHITE BOW/GHOUNE on 17 July and there is still no sign of the first proof. Worse, there has been absolutely no feedback from Amazon to explain why — neither to us personally, nor Out There. I decided to wait six weeks before firing them, but now discover from AI and chat blogs that people are waiting ‘up to three months’ to receive the first proof. Surely, definitely, this publishing model is collapsing? I will wait till 17th October. Meanwhile, I am getting a quote for a short hardback run which I will probably produce even if Amazon come up with the paperback.
10 September
What was the purpose of the visit to Moscow by the director of the CIA a fortnight ago and by Trump’s ‘peace envoys’ last week? It’s reported that in an hour-long telephone call with Trump two days ago, Putin assured Trump that he had ‘no aggressive intentions’ towards Europe (a worthless assurance), which suggests that the CIA director told Putin’s gang bluntly that their hybrid attacks on European states had gone too far and the United States would actually stand by its NATO allies. The two presidents are also reported to have discussed the ‘peace process’ and Trump quoth on Truth Social that they had ‘agreed to have their respective teams immediately begin direct negotiations to end the conflict’. Again, pass the salt cellar. The real background to it all, in my view, is that Putin has got cold feet about the elections to the Duma in ten days time. His ‘United Russia’ party will, of course, win, but if it cannot be concealed from the Russian people that its majority (70%) is significantly reduced, that will send a clear signal to everyone and could even trigger a coup (given the deepening economic crisis and enormous daily losses at the Front). Putin has been sufficiently worried to go canvassing round Siberia! Banning the Yabloko party and carefully creating the temporary impression that peace is coming (as at least 50% of Russians now want), could sustain that majority. But whichever way you look, the days of the only man to have started the war are numbered. He cannot win the war, and a negotiated peace will expose him to Russians as a murderous failure.
15 September
I haven’t written any haikus for two years, but in autumn the spirit can move one:
white butterflies
flicker on the garden
lower lower
By Emma’s old ponds,
focussing slowly, with care —
the last Japanese.
One of the ponds at Emmanuel College Cambridge that date from medieval times but have been fed since 1631 by water from Hobson’s Conduit.
the hummer sucks
and sucks the buddleia
then soars fifty feet
one yellow leaf
on the conservatory’s
doormat
hummer: A Hummingbird Hawk-Moth
20 September
Philip Andrews-Speed, a friend from my 1970s geology days and now a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, emailed to say he was interested by my post of 24 August about Catherine Merridale’s book Night of Stone, which I described as the best book ever written about Russia. In our correspondence, he used the phrase ‘path dependence’ about a country. This was new to me, but from his explanation I could see how relevant the concept is to the focus of his research — the political economy of energy and natural resource governance in China. I’m delighted to say that Philip has accepted my invitation to do a guest post on ‘path dependence’ and it will be the next Calderonia post on 12 October. Brace yourselves: Philip is an incisive writer!
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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.
