Monarch Butterfly Madeira
Book sent to George Calderon in Russia by his mother, Christmas 1895.
A happy memory of Trinity College: undergraduates breakfast together in Downy V. Green, p. 77.
George Calderon c.1901
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Unpublished watercolour by George Calderon, Tahiti 1906
George and Kittie Calderon 1905
Michel and Vera Fokine in “Scheherazade”, 1914 (The Music And Theatre Library of Sweden, creative commons)
Basic form of the Calderon coat of arms
Jean Ryckaert, May 1916.
George Calderon, 1912
Patrick Miles in his summer house, 11 December 2016
Captain of the 11
Sir Richard Vincent Sutton c. 1913
Colonel Sir Walter Coote Hedley c. 1920
Frontis piece by Frank Calderon
K.N. Das Gupta and Margaret Mitchell in an Indian Dramatic Society production of The Maharani of Arakan, 1913?
Christmas 1901 Cartoon by George Calderon
The entrance to Fort Brockhurst (picture from Britain’s Past)
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
Inestimable Russianist 2: John Dewey
(This series is timed to coincide with the 2019 Annual Conference of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies at Robinson College, Cambridge.) It is no exaggeration to say that John Dewey befriended Calderonia out of the blue — … Continue reading
Posted in Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged Academe, Alexander Pushkin, Alexandrine, biographies, biography, Boris Yampolsky, Brimstone Press, choriamb, comments, Fedor Tiutchev, Fyodor Tyutchev, George Calderon, Glas, Harvey Pitcher, Irina Muravyova, John Dewey, John Dryden Prize, Ksenia Zhukova, Michael Pursglove, Mirror of the Soul: A Life of the Poet Tyutchev, prosody, publishers, Ruslan and Ludmila, Russian Studies, Stanley Mitchell, T.J. Binyon, The Bronze Horseman, Yevgeny Zamyatin
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George’s thought for the day
Some time ago a reader asked me whether I thought George Calderon subscribed to Thomas Carlyle’s theory of the ‘great man’ in history. This theory was certainly popular with the Victorians and, as the reader pointed out, George’s extreme individualism … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged baptism, biography, bookmark, comments, cypher, George Calderon, great man, humanity, Jesus Christ, John Polkinghorne, John the Baptist, Kittie Calderon, library, manuscripts, original sin, religion, shorthand, sin, theology, Thomas Carlyle
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The Errata, Corrigenda and Addenda
George Calderon: Edwardian Genius has now been out for just over five months. I started ‘proofreading’ the book the moment I received it from Clays on 4 June 2018; it’s been ‘hoovered’ many times since. Now seems the right moment … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Edwardian marriage, Heroism and Adventure, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged addenda, bibliography, biographies, biography, comments, corrections, corrigenda, editing, errata, formatting, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, Index, indie publishing, John Pym, mistakes, proofreading, publishing, Sam&Sam, typography, typos
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Is all biography also autobiography?
As long-term followers will know, the above question worries me (in the canine sense). The reason my Introduction went through so many versions was that half of my test-readers thought there was too much of me in it and not enough … Continue reading
Posted in Heroism and Adventure, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged America, anthropology, autobiography, biographies, biography, cicadas, comments, Cyclops, expansionism, Fedor Dostoevskii, George Calderon, imperialism, Japan, Jizo, John Aubrey, Lafcadio Hearn, Meiji, militarism, nationalism, novels, pornography, Roger Pulvers, Ruth Scurr, The Dream of Lafcadio Hearn, The Unmaking of an American, Yakumo Koizumi
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A slim classic
In a very stimulating review of my book in the annual Report of George’s old college, Trinity Oxford, Michael Alexander writes: ‘Should a biographer tell all that has been found, or select to streamline the story? It depends.’ He is right. … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary
Tagged Alessandro Falcetta, Armistice, biographies, biography, brevity, comments, Craiglockhart, George Calderon, Graham Greene, Harold Owen, James Rendel Harris, Jon Stallworthy, length, Michael Alexander, Ors, PTSD, publishers, Sambre and Oise Canal, Siegfried Sassoon, The Great War, Trinity College Oxford, Vincent van Gogh, Wilfred Owen, World War I
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A real biography
I don’t think I have read a new biography — or any biography — since Helen Smith’s The Uncommon Reader: A Life of Edward Garnett, which I wrote about on 1 June 2018. Given that I was constantly reading biographies as they … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian literature, Heroism and Adventure, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged Alessandro Falcetta, Armenia, biographies, biography, Brer Rabbit, Carole Spencer, comments, Congregationalism, Congress for the History of Religions, Corsica, cows, Darwinism, Edward Garnett, existentialism, George Calderon, Helen Smith, Jesus Christ, literary theory, mysticism, Nonconformism, Plymouth, Quakerism, Rendel Harris, Ruth Scurr, Søren Kierkegaard, Times Literary Supplement, William Littleboy, Woodbrooke
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‘Normal’ blogging will resume
A very happy and healthy New Year to all Calderonia readers old and new! (And if you are entirely new, please consider subscribing [immediate right], which does not mean paying anything, it just means that you will automatically receive each … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged Amazon, biographies, biography, Blackwell's, blogging, Boris Kustodiev, Bryon MacWilliams, commemoration, comments, Daunt Books, East-West Review, George Calderon, Kittie Calderon, Michael Pursglove, National Archives, publicity, publishing, Russian baths, Russian Venus, Sam&Sam, steam baths, The Great War, Waterstones, World War I
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First biography of Gallipoli war hero
Weep, you may weep, for you may touch them not. Wilfred Owen Although at 45 well over-age, George Calderon was determined in 1914 to get to the Front. He signed up on 4 August 1914 and went with the Blues … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Edwardian marriage, Heroism and Adventure, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged Achi Baba, Anton Chekhov, biographies, biography, British Expeditionary Force, comments, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, George Calderon, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Kittie Calderon, KOSB, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, Royal Horse Guards, Tahiti, The Blues, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, Twelve Tree Copse, World War I, Ypres
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The War, chronotopia and commemoration
Many people deny the existence of a ‘national mood’ and ‘national consciousness’. I certainly don’t believe in the latter, any more than I accept the idea of a collective soul (the ‘Russian Soul’ etc). But I think there is a … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Heroism and Adventure, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged A Group Photograph, Alrewas, Andrew Tatham, Armistice Day, biographies, biography, British Expeditionary Force, C.F. Aspinall-Oglander, chronotopia, closure, commemoration, comments, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Dan Snow, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, Gallipoli Memorial, George Calderon, Imperial War Museum, Kemal Atatürk, Laurence Brockliss, March Offensive, memorialisation, Mustafa Kemal, Nadir Imamoğlu, national consciousness, National Memorial Arboretum, national mood, On This Day, Patrick Cordingley, Remembrance Sunday, Russian Soul, SANDS, Shot at Dawn Memorial, Tate Britain, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, Twelve Tree Copse, World War I
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23 August 1915
On this day in 1915, probably in response to appeals put out by Kittie and by Gertrude Bell at the Red Cross in London, a Captain Frank J. Martin of the Royal Worcestershire Regiment appeared at the office of a … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary
Tagged 4 June 1915, B Company, biographies, biography, Bristol, Captain Paterson, comments, Dardanelles, Frank J. Martin, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Gertrude Bell, Jack Harley, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Kittie Calderon, Royal Worcestershire Regiment, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, trench warfare, Trinity College Oxford, World War I
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Countdown
It is only four weeks to publication day. A mind-focussing fact. On the day, 7 September, I shall have a post announcing publication, displaying the cover with its centenary bellyband, giving details of how to buy the book, and quoting … Continue reading
Posted in Heroism and Adventure, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged 'real time', Alison Miles, biographies, biography, Calderonia, commemoration, comments, Dardanelles, Eric Ravilious, Gallipoli, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, Kittie Calderon, publication, reviews, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, William Rothenstein, World War I
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Guest post: John Dewey reviews the life of Rosa Newmarch
Rosa Newmarch (1857-1940) was an extraordinary woman of many talents – ‘une femme inoubliable’ as Sibelius once called her, a phrase adopted by Lewis Stevens as the title of this fascinating biography published by Matador in 2011. She achieved considerable … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Edwardian marriage, Personal commentary
Tagged Alexander Borodin, Alexander Glazunov, Bella Simpson, biographies, biography, Bolshevik regime, César Cui, comments, Czechoslovak music, Czechoslovakia, Feodor Chaliapin, George Calderon, Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Henry Wood, Jean Sibelius, John Dewey, Leoš Janaček, Lewis Stevens, Mighty Handful, Mily Balakirev, Modest Musorgsky, music, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Peter Tchaikovsky, Philip Ross Bullock, Rosa Newmarch, Russia, Russian music, The Great War, Thomas Beecham, Tomáš Masaryk, Vladimir Stasov, World War I
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Biography’s unheard dimension
Biography is words. Personally, I hear words when I am writing rather than being focussed on their soundless written form — which is probably why I am less than 100% consistent in my presentation of the hieroglyphs on paper. I … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged Airs Russes, Albert Cazabon, Aleksandr Glazunov, Alfred Wareing, Anatolii Liadov, Andante cantabile, Anton Chekhov, Ballets Russes, Basil de Sélincourt, biographies, biography, Chanson Trise, comments, Daniel Auber, Dardanelles, Eastcote, Edvard Grieg, eidetics, Gaetano Donizetti, George Calderon, Glasgow Repertory Theatre, Heathland Lodge, Henryk Wieniawski, Jean Sibelius, Kittie Calderon, Konstantin Stanislavsky, L'elisir d'amore, Le Philtre, Les Vendredis, Lev Tolstoi, Madeira, moods, Moscow Art Theatre, Nikolai Sokolov, Peter Tchaikovsky, smell, sound, The Seagull, Trinity College Oxford, Valse Triste, Well Walk
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Inestimable Russianist 3: Harvey Pitcher
(This series is timed to coincide with the 2019 Annual Conference of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies at Robinson College, Cambridge.) Hale and hearty in his eighty-third year, Harvey Pitcher is not only one of this … Continue reading →