Tag Archives: biographies

Dialogue at a dinner

SHE: Who is this man you are talking about? ME: He’s Edwardian. SHE: Is Edwardian? Surely you mean he was Edwardian? ME: Well no, he is Edwardian. SHE: No no, you can’t say that. He was Edwardian! ME: Er… Next entry: De-appled

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The last blurt

I thought I had got everything out about the completion of my biography of George Calderon in my post of 18 June, but no: there is something I forgot to say and have been meaning to put on record for … Continue reading

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The biographer blurts

Ah dear, it’s time to come clean. The ‘disaster’ has happened: this blog is now a fortnight ahead of the writing of my biography itself. I finished Chapter 14 of the biography with George going over the top on 4 … Continue reading

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George Calderon: a tribute

As I have written before, the question everyone asks me is: ‘Who is George Calderon?’ Perhaps unconsciously, some people seem to intonate this as a rhetorical question implying: ‘Why are you spending years of your life writing about a person … Continue reading

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4 June 1915: The Third Battle of Krithia

At nine o’clock last night the 1st Battalion King’s Own Scottish Borderers paraded near W Beach, received a benediction from their padre, and were addressed by their commanding officer. They had been taken from the 87th Brigade and attached to … Continue reading

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De-appling

In my 22 January post I explained the meaning of the Edwardian verb ‘to apple’. I mentioned that five lines in George’s letter to Kittie of 10 May 1915 were ‘appled out’ and I was following up ‘forensic programmes’ for … Continue reading

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The bifurcator biffed

Faithful followers of this blog know that since last September I have been dogged by the rival claims of writing the blog and finishing the biography. The methods of each are so different that at times it’s felt schizophrenic — … Continue reading

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Ruth Scurr’s exhilarating experiment

In my post of 6 March I discussed an essay by Ruth Scurr about biography that had just appeared in the Guardian Review. Her essay stirred up a whole hive of issues that the modern biographer should be aware of and needs … Continue reading

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Another eminent Calderon

I picked up The Second I Saw You: The True Love Story of Rupert Brooke and Phyllis Gardner at Waterstones recently and, as I always do with newly published Edwardiana, went straight to the index to see if ‘Calderon’ featured in … Continue reading

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The biographer discombobulated

I am greatly entertained by Mistress Ruth Scurr’s new book John Aubrey: My Own Life. It contains 433 pages. My honoured friend Mr William Harvey warns me that I shall acquire an impostumation if I sit reading it much longer. I … Continue reading

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The Arakan ‘mystery’

The other evening, I met a friend at a party who told me she had recently taken part in a reading of George’s ‘Romantic Comedy in One Act’, The Maharani of Arakan. I was amazed, as I had not heard of … Continue reading

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Two separate biographies

As I have explained on several occasions, apart from his machine gun course on Hayling Island we know nothing specific about George’s training as a lieutenant with the 9th Battalion Ox and Bucks at Fort Brockhurst from the middle of … Continue reading

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Biography and the limits of non-fiction

I keep dipping into Ruth Scurr’s John Aubrey: My Own Life. It’s very compulsive reading, but I don’t have time at the moment to let it run away with me as I would wish. Nevertheless, I’ve read enough both of the … Continue reading

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‘Bifurcation’ and ‘chronotopia’ again

Those who have been on my journey since 30 July 1914/2014 will remember that six weeks into it (12 September) I wrote about the problem I was having of holding in my head the two activities of writing the blog … Continue reading

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Time and the biographer

I have received a long and very interesting letter from John Dewey, author of the superb Mirror of the Soul: A Life of the Poet Fyodor Tyutchev (2010), commenting on my various posts over the last three months that touch on … Continue reading

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‘Calderonia’: an update

New followers of the blog deserve an explanation, I feel, of why the last four posts have been purely military and what stage ‘Calderonia’ is at. The main object of the blog is to follow the last year of writer … Continue reading

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