Two anniversaries

Commemoration of the tenth anniversary of this blog was elided. On 30 July 1914 George Calderon arrived on the Isle of Wight to spend a holiday with the Pym family and I began the blog on 30 July 2014 with his letter to Kittie describing his arrival.

There are several things that come to mind in connection with this anniversary. First, that I never remotely imagined in 2014 that I would still be running Calderonia ten years later, but I am deeply beholden to followers who persuaded me to continue. Second, that between 30 July 19/2014 and 30 July 19/2015 I posted on every day when I had a relevant document or event that shed light on what George was doing that day, and I think this ‘blography’ was something of an innovation. It slowed down the completion of my full biography, but I think it contributed something that I could not produce in the latter, namely the nearest thing to ‘real time’, and is a story that may still grip the reader. It is, perhaps, the part of Calderonia that will ‘stand’, that is worth preserving for posterity. But (third) I am also extremely glad that the blog was able to broaden beyond 19/2015 to accommodate my interests, concerns, growing pains at any given moment, and to attract so many brilliant Commentators and guest contributors. Thank you, all.

But this time is also the one hundred and tenth anniversary of the outbreak of the ‘Great War’. What can I possibly say about that? To live through the four years of centenary commemoration was, as long-term subscribers to Calderonia will remember, to co-experience the eviscerating madness of it all from day to day. I am more convinced than ever that the deeply national empathising with the 1914-18 holocaust during its centenary had a fundamental impact on the EU Referendum — which no-one at the time could, or would, articulate. And, to our stupefaction, since 2022 Europe has seen the return of trench warfare. To our disbelief, Europe is again on the brink of a general war.

Perhaps the night of 4 August 2014, when the nation put lighted candles in its windows, seems a world away. But it is not. Volodymyr Zelenskyy daily pays tribute to those who are giving their lives to defend Ukraine’s sovereignty. Ukrainians constantly stress that they will never forget those men and women who have fallen to preserve Ukraine’s freedom, nationhood and culture. Our debt to those who fought for us in the ‘Great War’ and the Second World War is the same. In the words of George Calderon’s lifelong friend Laurence Binyon, ‘They shall grow not old’. We will never forget them.

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.