Category Archives: Uncategorized

Guest post by Alison Miles: Some geographical aspects of a visit to Japan in 2013

I visited Japan in autumn 2013 and my main reason was to see Jim, who lived there for several years. It was about six months after I retired so a wonderful opportunity to take a long-haul flight (my first ever) … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Hayashi Fumiko’s nuclear winter

Japan’s genocidal war crimes do not go away. They constantly feature in our media and I for one will never forget them, as my uncle died in Japanese captivity in 1945. A recent article in The Spectator was headed ‘Not … Continue reading

Posted in Personal commentary, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

‘Another culture’ (A series of seven posts)

Sam2, aka our son James Miles, worked in Japan as a teacher from 2011 to 2014 (his first job when he got back to England was to set up Calderonia!). My wife Alison visited Jim in Japan in 2013. Jim … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Guest Post: Sam2 on… ‘How to Typeset A Second Book’

The final act of Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev concerns a boy and a bell. In this hour-long conclusion to the film, the son of a deceased bellmaker persuades his village that the father bequeathed to him a secret bellmaking recipe. He … Continue reading

Posted in Modern parallels, Personal commentary, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Guest post: Michael Pursglove on the ‘forgotten translators’

My interest in early translations from Russian, and especially in their translators, began when I was setting to work on my translation of Turgenev’s Virgin Soil in 2014. It became clear that this would be the first new translation of … Continue reading

Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Edwardian marriage, Personal commentary, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Russia (continued)

Chapter four of my biography, ‘Who Had He Been?’, relates amongst other things what George did in Russia between 12 October 1895 and the summer of 1897. I think it will be a revelation to a lot of people. It … Continue reading

Posted in Edwardian character, Heroism and Adventure, Modern parallels, Personal commentary, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

One does the hokey cokey

I said in my post of 6 October (nearly two months ago!) that I was ‘fired up to put the last tittle on my biography by the end of November’, which meant in the first instance writing the Afterword (‘Who … Continue reading

Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian literature, Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Another Calderon signs up

At Edmonton, Alberta, on this day in 1915, George’s eldest brother, the architect Alfred Merigon Calderon (q.v.), applied to join the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force — as their youngest brother, Frederick Elwyn, had on 23 September 1914. It is not … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Commemoration

In two days time the following ‘In Memoriam’ will appear in The Times: CALDERON George Leslie, Russianist, journalist, dramatist, anthropologist, adventurer, killed at Gallipoli 4 June 1915. ‘What he believed, he did’ (Laurence Binyon). Since George wrote more for The Times than any … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

30 May 1915

1st bn KOSB 87th Brigade 29th Division M.E.F. May 30th Dearest Mrs P, I’m hard up for paper. Please send some. We’re still on the same spot, in broiling sun, dry and beautiful; sea to either side. […] Daily programme … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘Nothing happened’

It is a very curious thing, but in none of the sources that I have used for understanding the full military context of George’s life on Gallipoli does the date 29 May feature. Nor did he write a letter to … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

26 May 1915

This afternoon the ferry steamer from Mudros with George Calderon on board arrived at Helles and its draft of soldiers from Britain landed ‘under the crumbled ruins of a white castle’ as he put it, i.e. the old fort at … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

25 May 1915

In a blue harbour surrounded by green rock-broken hills in a place I may not name. 9 a.m.                                             … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

23 May 1915

Today George wrote hastily on the back of his letter to Kittie dated yesterday (Saturday) and written on board the R.M.S. Orsova at Alexandria: Sunday morning. Prognostications are right. It’s in the morning. Doctors, nurses and chaplains are for the shore (a … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

22 May 1915

Today Kittie moved from Foxwold, the Pyms’ home in the Weald of Kent, to Emmetts, about a mile away. We know this from the fact that the Visitors Book at Foxwold was maintained meticulously. Emmetts was the home of Violet … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The ‘strange aftermath’ at Anzac

After the Turks’ failed general attack on 19 May, over three thousand corpses lay directly in front of the Anzac trenches. In the hot sun the dead presented a real sanitary risk and the calling of the wounded was unbearable. … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment