Frontis piece by Frank Calderon
Michel and Vera Fokine in “Scheherazade”, 1914 (The Music And Theatre Library of Sweden, creative commons)
Basic form of the Calderon coat of arms
Unpublished watercolour by George Calderon, Tahiti 1906
Figure from Gauguin’s 1899 painting ‘Tahitian Women with Mango Blossoms’ (left); George Calderon’s pencil sketch ‘Manu’ (right)
Christmas 1901 Cartoon by George Calderon
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.
Monarch Butterfly Madeira
Colonel Sir Walter Coote Hedley c. 1920
Captain of the 11
Jean Ryckaert, May 1916.
Sir Richard Vincent Sutton c. 1913
The entrance to Fort Brockhurst (picture from Britain’s Past)
K.N. Das Gupta and Margaret Mitchell in an Indian Dramatic Society production of The Maharani of Arakan, 1913?
George Calderon, 1912
Patrick Miles in his summer house, 11 December 2016
George Calderon c.1901
George and Kittie Calderon 1905Recent Comments
- John Pym on Two anniversaries We are all, followers and occasional contributors, beholden to you, Patrick, for reminding us for ten years that the past is worth remembering and for keeping alive the... (August 17, 2024 at 1:06 pm)
- Patrick Miles on A second Family Bible Very many thanks for fleshing that point out -- and so entertainingly! (I love your reference to creative writing courses, which are a phobia of mine.) Although several... (August 2, 2024 at 11:03 am)
- Laurence Brockliss on A second Family Bible When I say that the British Republic of Letters was dead by 1880, I don't mean to imply that thereafter there were no men and women outside universities, institutes and... (August 2, 2024 at 9:19 am)
- Patrick Miles on A second Family Bible Thank you for devoting valuable time to writing this fascinating Comment. If I may say so, it is awe-inspiring to see the author of a monumental work standing back from that... (July 31, 2024 at 5:32 pm)
- Laurence Brockliss on A second Family Bible Male Professionals in Nineteenth Century Britain was a new departure for me. For most of my adult life I have worked on seventeenth and eighteenth century France. It is also... (July 24, 2024 at 11:31 am)
Category Archives: Heroism and Adventure
From the diary of a writer-publisher: 1
27 March Took the train asap to Daunt Books in Hampstead. They had emailed that ‘unfortunately we haven’t sold a copy and if you don’t collect them they will be given to a charity shop’. That’s £180 worth of books! … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian literature, Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary
Tagged biographies, biography, comments, Dardanelles, Daunt Books, Ed Maggs, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Germany, GPO, Hampstead Heath, independent publishing, Maggs Bros. Ltd, Post Office, Stig Abell, string, The Great War, Times Literary Supplement
1 Comment
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
Leave a comment
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
1 Comment
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
Leave a comment
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
Leave a comment
The 150th anniversary of a very remarkable man
One hundred and fifty years ago today, early in the morning, Clara Calderon (aged thirty-two) gave birth to George Leslie Calderon at 9 Marlborough Place, St John’s Wood. If not present at the actual birth, his father the Victorian painter … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Edwardian marriage, Heroism and Adventure, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged Amelia Storey, anniversaries, Arabella Court, biographies, birthplace, Clara Calderon, Dardanelles, Frank Calderon, Gallipoli, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, John Calderon, Marlborough Place, Philip Hermogenes Calderon, readers, Sam&Sam
Leave a comment
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
Leave a comment
The War Is Over
I went to attend the Armistice commemoration on Sunday in my home town of Sandwich, whence my grandfather set out for Gallipoli in 1915 and whither he fortunately returned from Ypres in 1918. This was the programme: As you can … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Heroism and Adventure, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged Armistice, Book of Common Prayer, comments, Gallipoli, George Calderon, memorialisation, memory, National Memorial Arboretum, Peter Jackson, Remembrance Sunday, Sandwich, St Clement's Church, The Great War, They Shall Not Grown Old, World War I, Ypres
2 Comments
‘Bugles calling for them…’
It is a source of sorrow to me that for unforeseeable reasons I have not been able to honour my acceptance two years ago of an extremely kind invitation from the Wilfred Owen Association (France) to attend the commemoration today … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Heroism and Adventure, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged Anthem for Doomed Youth, British Expeditionary Force, bugles, commemoration, comments, Dulce et Decorum, English language, George Calderon, Greater Love, historians, Ivor Gurney, Ors, Poets Corner, Rupert Brooke, Sambre-Oise Canal, Siegfried Sassoon, The Great War, war poetry, War Poets, Wilfred Owen, Wilfred Owen Association, World War I
2 Comments
Who are ‘war heroes’?
Subscribers to Calderonia are probably unaware that the wording of the sales post below, which has been up since publication day on 7 September, has actually changed several times as we were obliged to re-target our marketing by theme … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Heroism and Adventure, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged Achilles, Aristotle, comments, Crusades, Dardanelles, Edith Cavell, Gallipoli, George Calderon, hamartia, heroes, Horatio Nelson, hubris, Iliad, Karsh, Lemuel Francis Abbott, Moscow Arts, patri-passionism, patriotism, Patroclus, Peter Jackson, Prospect Theatre Company, Richard Westmancott, self-sacrifice, St John Hankin, The Great War, They Shall Not Grow Old, Third Battle of Krithia, Toby Robertson, war heroes, war victims, Wellington Memorial, Winston Churchill, World War I
Leave a comment
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
3 Comments
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
Leave a comment
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
Leave a comment
From the diary of a writer-publisher: 3
14 May I gather, from a reliable source, that access to Calderonia has been blocked in Russia (I nearly said ‘the Soviet Union’). This would explain why no Russian viewers have featured in the stats for months. One can only … Continue reading →