Tag Archives: comments

Two anniversaries

Posted on August 14, 2024 by Patrick Miles

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian character, Heroism and Adventure, Modern parallels, Uncategorized | Tagged 'real time', anniversaries, biographies, biography, Brexit, British Expeditionary Force, Calderonia, candles, commemoration, comments, empathy, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, Isle of Wight, Kittie Calderon, Laurence Binyon, Pym family, The Great War, Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, World War I | 1 Comment

Ukrainian journal

Posted on August 1, 2024 by Patrick Miles

27 June 2024 A Russian opposition group called the Congress of People’s Deputies, consisting of over sixty exiled politicians who were once MPs in the State Duma, has met this week in Warsaw to discuss their plan to overthrow the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Adolf Hitler, Anton Chekhov, assassinations, Buiurnuz, comments, Congress of People's Deputies, conventional forces, Crimea, Donald Trump, Evgeniia Berkovich, Freedom of Russia Legion, Gallipoli, genocide, Ivan Krastev, Keir Starmer, Koktebel', Kyiv, Kyrylo Budanov, NATO, nuclear war, Populism, Reinhard Heydrich, Russia, Sergei Shoigu, terrorism, The Crimean War, The People's Will Party, Ukraine, Valerii Gerasimov, Viktor Erofeev, Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Yalta | Leave a comment

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 29

Posted on May 15, 2024 by Patrick Miles

5 April 2024 I have received from a cousin the above image of our grandfather’s regimental sword. This plate on its scabbard seems to supply some context to what I knew about his military career. He joined up in 1894 … Continue reading →

Posted in Heroism and Adventure, Modern parallels, Personal commentary | Tagged A Group Photograph, Alcaic metre, Andrew Tatham, anoraks, badges, British Expeditionary Force, brooches, Caitlin Pirie, Charles Miles, comments, Foreign Office, Friedrich Hölderlin, George Calderon, haikus, I Shall Not Be Away Long, Japan, Jim Miles, koi carp, military aid, NATO, Northamptonshire Regiment, paranoia, swords, The Clay Akita, The Great War, typos, Ukraine, verse translation, Vladimir Putin, World War I | Leave a comment

A stunning discovery

Posted on January 15, 2024 by Patrick Miles

Mr Garry Humphreys is writing a major book about the English composer Arthur Somervell (1863-1937), as well as compiling a catalogue raisonné of Somervell’s compositions. On 6 September last year he emailed me to ask whether I thought a typescript … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Personal commentary | Tagged 'Scheherazade', Abu Nâsi, Arthur Somervell, ballet, Ballets Russes, biographies, biography, cartoons, comments, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, Garry Humphreys, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, Heathland Lodge, Islam, John Pym, Kittie Calderon, Konstantin Stanislavsky, Michel Fokine, Middle East, mimodramas, Moscow Arts Theatre, The Blue Cloth, The Great War, The Red Cloth, Third Battle of Krithia, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Well Walk, World War I, Ypres | Leave a comment

NEW YEAR

Posted on January 1, 2024 by Patrick Miles

Whether you are stalwart subscribers to Calderonia since 30 July 2014, or casual callers from across the globe to posts on, say, limericks, John Hamilton, paradoxes, the Third Battle of Krithia, dogs or Lady Chatterley’s Lover, I wish you a … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged archbishops of Canterbury, BASEES Conference, biographies, biography, blog announcement, Book of Revelation, Calderonia, chrysanthemums, comments, freesias, freshness, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, King Lear, Kittie Calderon, Michael Ramsay, New Year, newness, oldness, Osip Mandel'shtam, publishers, Rowan Williams, Russia, Sam&Sam, sermons, Ukraine, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 26

Posted on December 5, 2023 by Patrick Miles

7 November 2023 Ukraine must win. There is no alternative, because Putin will never offer a true peace, only a breather before making another attempt to destroy Ukraine as a sovereign state then torture, murder, deport and imprison its people. … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian character, Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary | Tagged Alexander Lukashenka, Anton Chekhov, Berkers, Brest, Cambridge Young Chekhov Company, comments, Crocs, Crox, dedicatees, Donald Trump, Edinburgh, Fathers and Children, Garry Kasparov, gene pools, George Calderon, glasnost', Gothic, Ivan Turgenev, Jane Austen, Jonathan Routh, Kaliningrad, Matt Dimmick, NATO, Nicolson Square, old age, Olga Knipper-Chekhova, pavements, perestroika, Remembrance Sunday, Rob Roy, rubber bands, Russia, Scotland, Scott Monument, Scottish Rationalism, shop girls, short stories, Stephan Roman, Taiwan, The Great War, Ukraine, USA, Ventnor, Vladimir Putin, Volodymr Zelensky, Walter Scott, Wilfred Owen, World War I, Xi Jinping | Leave a comment

Guest post by John Pym: Henry James’s ‘The Death of the Lion’

Posted on May 1, 2023 by Patrick Miles

An unnamed young Englishman, a lowly journalist with literary ambition, begins to tell a story (cast in the form of ‘meagre’ private notes): the author Neil Paraday is recuperating at home in the country from a grave illness; he’s published … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Modern parallels, Personal commentary | Tagged 'Terminations', 'The Altar of the Dead', 'The Death of the Lion', comments, commissioning editors, Frank Harris, gender, George Calderon, gossip columnists, Henry James, I. Zangwill, John Pym, journalism, Kittie Calderon, Leon Edel, literary hostesses, literary life, literary salons, literature, magazines, manuscripts, Neil Paraday, Peety, Phil May, pseudonyms, Scribner's Magazine, short stories, The Tatler, The Yellow Book, William Heinemann | 2 Comments

Guest post by Jim Miles: Call My Agent!

Posted on March 27, 2023 by Patrick Miles

One of my jobs is teaching English at a language school in Cambridge. I have students varying in age from teenagers right up to retired adults, and from countries all over the world. This makes the work very interesting but … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged acting agencies, bobo, Call My Agent, Camille Cottin, comments, Dix pour cent, Dominique Besnehard, France, guest posts, hipster, IELTS, James Miles, Juliette Binoche, language teaching, Netflix, Paris, scooters, Sigourney Weaver, subtitles, translation | 4 Comments

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 22

Posted on March 20, 2023 by Patrick Miles

24 February 2023 A recent study made by a reliable Moscow source indicates that 22% of the Russians polled were fervently in favour of the war on Ukraine, 20% were deeply opposed to it, and the rest (58%) ‘had no … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian character, Personal commentary | Tagged acting agencies, Alexander Pushkin, Alexandra Cann, autocracy, ballet, Ballets Russes, biographies, books, Boris Godunov, Call My Agent, Callimachus, comments, democracy, Dix pour cent, France, freedom, Friedrich Nietzsche, George Balanchine, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, Granta Publishing, independent publishing, James Miles, Jennifer Homans, Lincoln Kirstein, literary agents, Michel Fokine, Moscow, Nadezhda Mandel'shtam, New York City Ballet, opinion polls, responsibility, Russia, Sam&Sam, School of American Ballet, theatre agents, theosophy, Ukraine, Vladimir Soloviev, Volodymyr Zelensky, William Rothenstein | Leave a comment

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 21

Posted on February 6, 2023 by Patrick Miles

7 January Almost themed, one could say, in Calderonia, Cambridge academic Ruth Scurr has written a meaty review in today’s Spectator of Claire Harman’s experiment in biography All Sorts of Lives: Katherine Mansfield and the Art of Risking Everything. Anyone who writes … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian literature, Personal commentary | Tagged Alexander Vampilov, Anton Chekhov, armaments, baseline studies, biodiversity, biographies, biography, birds, Bottengoms Fram, butterflies, Calderonia, Cambridge, Cambridge City Council, Cambridge Theatre Company, Church of England, Church Times, Claire Harman, claustrophobia, Clays of Bungay, comments, conservation, cyber warfare, death, ecosystems, entrapment, Erich Ludendorff, Francis Kilvert, funerals, General Douglas Haig, General Foch, ghosts, hackers, Henry Vaughan, Ice Cold in Alex, James Miles, John Constable, Katherine Mansfield, last, Last Summer in Chulimsk, Next to Nature, paranoia, Peter Hall, Ronald Blythe, Russia, Ruth Scurr, Sam&Sam, security certificates, servers, short stories, Siberia, Spring Offensive 1918, Suffolk, Sylvia Syms, T.S. Eliot, The Great War, The Spectator, The Times, The Web, Tree Belt, Ukraine, Victim, wildlife, wildlife corridors, wildlife havens, World War I | Leave a comment

Guest post by Damian Grant: ‘Radio Scotland’

Posted on January 23, 2023 by Patrick Miles

We live in France. In Lille, where the language is French. About a year ago — not knowing anything about the animal — I bought a HomePod online. I had thought it was just a superior (and very stylish) kind … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio Scotland, Brexit, chaos theory, classical music, cleaning ladies, comments, Damian Grant, Felix Mendelssohn, Fingal's Cave, France, grandchildren, HomePod, IT, Lille, Madeleine Grant, nursery rhymes, Petroc Trelawney, Scottish Independence, Siri, technology, waste paper baskets | 2 Comments

A year of hope

Posted on January 1, 2023 by Patrick Miles

A happy new year to subscribers and viewers, and thank you sincerely for following us through our ninth year of existence. The question of Calderonia’s future is always in my mind, but I can assure you we shall continue at … Continue reading →

Posted in Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary | Tagged A Message from Ukraine, BASEES, BASEES Conference, Boris Johnson, Bucha, Cambridge, comments, courage, despair, Dnepro, Elon Musk, hope, Joe Biden, Justin Welby, Kiev, Kyiv, New Year messages, pandemics, Russia, Sam&Sam, the pandemic, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky | Leave a comment

Christmas in Moscow, 1969

Posted on December 21, 2022 by Patrick Miles

Leningrad, … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged ballet, biographies, biography, Bolshoi Theatre, British Embassy, Brussels sprouts, caviar, Christmas, Christmas Day, comments, coq au vin, George Calderon, Gorki Park, hoarfrost, Leningrad, Maya Plisetskaya, Moscow, Moscow University, Odette, Patrick Miles, prima ballerina assoluta, rime, Russia, skating, Swan Lake | 1 Comment

Mending into…

Posted on December 7, 2022 by Patrick Miles

In my mind’s eye, I can see George Calderon opening this book and chuckling with delight — not just because it was written (and gorgeously illustrated) by a great-granddaughter of his close friend ‘Evey’ Pym, but because it exemplifies something … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged anatomy, Bill Smith, biographies, Celia Pym, chaotic systems, Charles Evelyn Pym, comments, Elizabeth Pym, Evey Pym, evil eye, Fair Isle, George Calderon, Hope Pym, Jim Ivory, Judy Auerbach, jumpers, Kazimir Malevich, knitting, Lara Veitch, Lolu Oluwole-Ojo, mending, Monte Carlo Opera House, moth infestations, murmurations, Piet Mondrian, Pseuds Corner, pullovers, Roland Pym, silk, snowflakes, Suprematism, sweaters, teazles, Treasures from a Ragpile, Victoria & Albert Museum, Vivien Leigh, Women's Home Industries, Wool | 1 Comment

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 19

Posted on November 28, 2022 by Patrick Miles

4 November On its back page, the voluminous weekly DIE ZEIT, which I still think is the best newspaper in Europe, always carries a large photograph of an animal looking at the camera with a distinctive expression, and the caption … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged Adolf Hitler, Alexander Korotko, China, choughs, chrysanthemums, comments, Die Zeit, Edward Lear, emeritus professors, Georg Trakl, haiku, images, Iona, Islay, Kherson, malt whisky, Mexico, Osip Mandel'shtam, peace conferences, professors, Russo-Ukrainian War, soap, soapstone, Sudetenland, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky, war poems, war poetry, whiskies, Winston Churchill | 3 Comments

Was there an ‘Edwardian Age’, and was it ‘great’?

Posted on November 14, 2022 by Patrick Miles

When I began to read George and Kittie Calderon’s archive for my biography of them both, I little thought I would be drawn deeper and deeper into the question of ‘Edwardianism’. Yet I instantly felt as I read George’s letters … Continue reading →