Thanks to Kirsty for the excellent readings!

Show notes:

• ‘”They’ve got him! In the trees!” M.R. James and Sylvan Dread’ by Steve Duffy (Ghosts & Scholars)
• ‘So jarred were all my nerves’ : supernatural shock and traumatic terror in the ghost stories of M.R. James by Ralph Harrington (artificialhorizon.org)
• A close reading of M.R. James’ “A Neighbour’s Landmark.” by Tychy (tychy.wordpress.com)
• Myles Birket Foster and M.R. James (suptales.blogspot.co.uk)
• The interesting career of Lady Theodosia Ivy (roy25booth.blogspot.co.uk)
• The Lady Ivy’s Trial (in ‘Cobbett’s state trials’ – GoogleBooks)
• Possible locations: Betton Wood, Shropshire | Betton Strange Hall, Shropshire (Monty’s World)
• Glenfinlas; or, Lord Ronald’s Coronach by Sir Walter Scott (allpoetry.com)
• Warnings to the Curious, Ed. Rosemary Pardoe & S.T. Joshi (amazon.co.uk)
  Contains the essays by Jacquline Simpson and Brian Cowlishaw mentioned in this episode.

In the novel M.R. James is summoned to Old College, Oxford to examine the inscription on an ancient mirror which may have belonged to the magician John Dee. Soon James finds himself sucked into a tangled web of science, sorcery and the supernatural which stretches back to 1665 when the Black Death came to Oxford…

“They live in two places, I suppose: in fever dreams and mirrors…  What is it?  This unutterable thing.  An abomination!”

The episode features readings by Alisdair himself.
The book can be purchased in paperback and ebook formats on Amazon.co.uk
For more information on Alisdair, visit his website at www.andonaldson.co.uk

Big thanks go to our reader for this episode, Debbie Wedge.

Questions answered during this episode:

• Is M.R. James an anti-semite?
• Is Mr Poschwitz the Germanic Lovejoy?
• How much snakebite is too much snakebite?

Show notes:

• Michael Cox / Pleasing Terror story notes (amazon)
  M.R. James’ biographer Michael Cox has written some very useful notes for this story which can be found in the Oxford Classics edition of ‘Casting the Runes and Other Ghost Stories’. Another set of notes can be found in the ‘Pleasing Terror’ M.R. James anthology.
• ‘The Books, Manuscripts and Literary Patronage of Lady Anne Sadleir (1585-1670)’ by Arnold Hunt (Google Books)
  This essay features in the volume ‘Early Modern Women’s Manuscript Writing: Selected Papers from the Trinity/Trent Colloquium’ contains a wealth of information on the real life individual on who provided M.R. James with the inspiration of this story.
• Info on this story, Lady Sadleir and Anti-Cromwellian editions of the book of common prayer (Two Nerdy History Girls)
  Information often turns up in unexpected places, like here in the comments section of a competely unrelated article about Guy Fawkes! Scroll down to the thread of comments starting with Chris Woodyard for some interesting speculation on the inspiration for this story.
• Stereotypes of Jews in Literature (Wikipedia)
  Anti-Semitism has been rearing it’s ugly head in literature for centuries. Was M.R. James jumping on the Hebrew-bashing bandwagon? We think not but this info on how Jews have been portrayed in literature over the years is certainly eye-opening.
• “M.R. James, Antiquarian Sleuth: William of Norwich, Thomas of Monmouth and the Blood Libel” by Steve Duffy (Ghosts & Scholars)
  This excellent article goes a long way to debunk the suggestion that M.R. James was harbouring anti-semitic tendencies by discussing James’ work to debunk the ‘Blood libel’ myth through close examination of the truth behind the martyrdom of William of Norwich.
• Paul Lowe’s illustration of this story (Trashotron.com)
  Perennial M.R. James illustrator Paul Lowe produced a horrifying conception of what the flannel creature from this story may have looked like (scroll to the bottom of the page to find it).
• The Book of Common Prayer (wikipedia)
  Here you can read about the troubled history of the Book of Common Prayer, the first book to publish the forms of common Christian worship in English.
• Psalm 109 (rmjs.co.uk)
  Here you can read the full Book of Common Prayer version of Psalm 109, in all it’s doom-laden glory!

Show notes:

• Queen Mary’s Dolls’s House
  This story was written for a real dolls’ house, the one created by the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens for Queen Mary of Teck between 1921 and 1924. The dolls’ house in currently on display in Windsor. Further details can be found at Wikipedia.
• Strawberry Hill House
  James describes the dolls house in his story as being ‘Strawberry Hill Gothic‘ in style, the ‘quintessence of Horace Walpole‘. Walpole’s gothic castle-style house inspired a generation of architects when it was built on the banks of the Thames in London in the mid 18th century.
• Dolls’ Houses: It’s a Small World
  This enjoyable Guardian.com article looks into the world of modern day dolls’ house collectors.
• Interview with Stephen Gray
  Episode 21 of this very podcast featured an interview with filmmaker Stephen Gray who has recently completed a short film adaptation of this story. Watch it on Vimeo.
• Ghosts & Scholars notes
  The ever-reliable Ghosts & Scholars website contains a useful set of notes on this story compiled by Rosemary Pardoe.
• A frog the size of a man?
  Jim Moon’s excellent illustration.
• Improvised Radio Theatre – With Dice!
  Many thanks to our reader this week, Roger Burton West.  His new RPG podcast is great – and HPL fans will appreciate the domain name…

If you enjoyed this reading then many of Saki’s short stories are freely available on Project Gutenberg. Also, for some thoroughly excellent podcast readings of Saki’s other stories check out the website of Richard Crowest.

Join us in a couple of weeks for the next full episode on ‘The Haunted Dolls’ House‘ by M.R. James!

Show notes:

• Story Locations (Monty’s World)
  This story features many real-world locations, starting in King’s College Cambridge, and following Hardman and Ashe up the Huntindon Road (now the A14) past  Lolworth and on to the church at Fenstanton.
• Alchemy! Enlightenment! Revolution!
  … Britain in the late 17th and early 18th centuries had it all.  Mike recommends two books set around Oxford and Cambridge in this period, both with a pleasing mixture of science, swashbuckling and genre fun: An Instance of the Fingerpost, by Iain Pears, and Quicksilver, by Neal Stephenson.
• ‘Stories I have tried to write’ by M.R. James (A Podcast to the Curious)
  Although never published in his lifetime, James did mention this story in his essay ‘Stories I have tried to write’, published in 1929. We provided a full reading of the essay back in November 2011.
• ‘A Night in King’s College Chapel’ by M.R. James (Ghosts & Scholars)
  In this episode we mention the only other James story to be set at King’s College, another unpublished story called ‘A Night in King’s College Chapel’.
• Parker’s Piece, Cambridge (Wikipedia)
  James refers to snipe being shot in this city centre park back at the time when this story took place.
• Isaac Newton’s Catflap (Wikipedia)
  In ‘The Fenstanton Witch’ James refers to the popular myth that Sir Isaac Newton invented the cat flap whilst at King’s College Cambridge.
• The Methuen Treaty (Wikipedia)
  James drops a lot of historical details into his description of 18th Century college life. An example of this is his reference to the MEthuen Treaty with Portugal, which included trade regulations that allows wines to be imported from Portugal without tax.
• The Witch of Berkeley (Living the History)
  Thinking of turning to God when your pact with the devil turns sour? Read the story of the Witch of Berkeley first. C.S. Watkins “History and the Supernatural in Medieval England” provides expert commentary on what went wrong for her – and Hardman and Abel. Also, check out this cool illustration of the witch being carried away by a demon!
• 91st Psalm (Biblegateway.com)
  At the moment in their ritual when the demon appears, Hardman is just reading the 91st psalm.
• Sheila Hodgson (suttonelms.org.uk)
  Will first encountered this story in the form of ‘Turn, Turn, Turn’, a 1977 radio play by Sheila Hodgson that was broadcast as part of a series of plays based on the ideas mentioned by M.R. James in ‘Stories I have tried to write’.
• The 17th Century Witchcraft panic in Cambridgeshire (bbc.co.uk)
  It is likely that this story was inspired by the witchcraft hysteria which swept through western Cambridgeshire in the mid 17th century. More information of it’s victims can be found at witching.org, where you can also find an account of the trials written at the time.
• Arthur Gray aka Ingulphus (Ghosts & Scholars)
  Arthur Gray was a contemporary of M.R. James at Cambridge, where Gray was Master of Jesus College. Between 1910 and 1925 he published a number of ghost stories set at Jesus College under the pseudonym ’Ingulphus’.

Thanks to Kirsty for the excellent readings, and to Alisdair Wood for the great illustration to the left.

Don’t forget to vote on which story you would like to see Stephen Gray and his crew film next, ‘The Malice of Inanimate Objects’ by M.R. James or ‘The Willows’ by Algernon Blackwood.

Show notes

• Story Notes by Rosemary Pardoe (Ghosts & Scholars)
  Visit the ever-excellent Ghosts & Scholars for a useful set of notes which shed light on some of the more perplexing aspects of this story.
• Gray’s Inn (Wikipedia)
  James says he found the papers which make up this story in a dossier addressed to a lawyer in Grey’s Inn. Also see Gray’s Inn on Monty’s World.
• Coronet and Bird Crest (MyFamilySilver.com)
  The ‘bedsheets’ purchased by Dr Quinn features a bird and coronet, a motif common to a quite a few family crests from this period.
• St. Anthony meeting the Satyr (Gallery.ca)
  The rector makes reference to ‘Anthony conversing with a satyr’ as featured in the book of Jerome. This is a 1640 engraving of this scene.
• An Elicidation (?) of the Plot of ‘Two Doctors’ by Lance Arney (Amazon.co.uk)
  This essay features in the collection of essays ‘Warnings to the Curious’ and was a great help to us in researching this story.

This episode also features a Christmas Bonus in the form of an interview with film director Stephen Gray whose new adaptation of ‘A Haunted Doll’s House’ is available to watch online for a limited period only, starting Christmas Eve!

Our reader this week was Peter Ross and the accompanying artwork is by Alisdair Wood.

As mentioned in our interview, Stephen would like our listeners help deciding which story to film next! Please state your preference below.
Show notes

• Story notes by Rosemary Pardoe (Ghosts & Scholars)
  The ever-reliable Ghosts & Scholars website features some useful notes on the more perplexing terms used in this story.
• Punch and Judy (Wikipedia)
  For those unfamiliar with Punch and Judy shows, Wikipedia gives a good explaination of this peculiar form of traditional entertainment.
• Fuseli’s ‘The Nightmare’ (Wikipedia)
  In this story the writer compares Punch’s face to that of ‘the vampyre in Fusili’s foul sketch‘, a reference to the creature in Fuseli’s painting ‘The Nightmare’.
• Bicester, Oxfordshire (Monty’s World)
  Rosemary Pardoe tells us that in the original handwritten manuscript for this story the town called ‘B—’ in most printed versions is actually given as ‘Bicester’. Bicester is a market town in north Oxfordshire.
• Chrishall, Essex (Monty’s World)
  The first letter in this story is addressed from ‘Great Chrishall’. There is no ‘Great Chrishall’ in the UK, but there is a ‘Chrishall’ and a ‘Great Chishill‘, both near Essex’s border with Cambridgeshire.
• Professor Bert Codman and ‘Toby’ (Punchandjudy.com)
  Mike mentions this fellow in the podcast, one of the famous Codman dynasty of Punch and Judy performers. Apparently Bert died in 1969, just two days after the death of his beloved dog Toby!
• Photos of Bicester (Facebook)
  Will took a trip to Bicester to have a look around the various locations which feature in this story. Photos from the trip can be found at our Facebook page.

The image below shows the King’s Head/Arms inn which features in this story, as it looked in 1885.

Yes, it is another unpublished M.R. James manuscript fragment this week. The most complete version of this story is available in ‘Curious Warning: The Great Stories of M.R. James’ edited by Stephen Jones.

Show notes

• William Lenthall, 1591 – 1662 (Wikipedia)
  The real Speaker Lenthall was a politician during the English Civil War, famous for standing up for the rights of parliament before King Charles I. For more information see www.parliament.uk
• Oxford Movement (wikipedia)
  This story is set against the backdrop of the work of the Oxford Movement, also known as the ‘Tractarians’, who agitated for religious change within the Church of England in the first half of the 19th century.
• Gothic Revival (wikipedia)
  M.R. James once again uses this story to take a swipe at the followers of the gothic architectural revival, whose renovations of English churches during the 19th century resulted in the destruction of many historic church interiors.
• Burford Church (burfordchurch.org)
  The church that features in this story is St John the Baptist Church in Burford, West Oxfordshire. Check out the 360-degree view from the church tower, which gives a very nice view of the town as it looks today.
• Tanfield Tomb (burfordchurch.org)
  The tomb in this story is based on that of an ancestor of Speaker William Lenthall, Sir Lawrence Tanfield. Like the tomb in the story, it fills up most of the north choir aisle of Burford Church, and largely matches the stories description.
• Burford Priory (wikipedia)
  In the story Mr Cave and his family live in what was originally Burford Priory, now a very fancy private residence. Also see this pdf for images of the Priory as it was at the time of this story.
  Those in the UK can also watch this episode of ‘Time Team’ on 4oD in which they excavate the remains of the priory hospital beneith the front lawn! And finally, how do you link Speaker Lenthall to the phone hacking scandal? Easy!
• More photos on Facebook (facebook.com)
  To see photos taken by Will of Burford Church, the Tanfield/Lenthall tomb and of Burford Priory, head over to our Facebook page.

The most complete version of the manuscript, as transcribed by Rosemary Pardoe, can be read online at the Ghosts & Scholars Website.

Big thanks for the readings goes to Kirsty W… no wait, Kirsty Taylor! Also thanks to Alisdair Wood to the excellent M.R. James image to the right. Don’t forget to check out his T-shirts at zazzle.com.

Show notes:

• The Vale Royal of England (Wikipedia)
  This story is set in ‘Perhaps the Vale Royal of England’, an area in north Cheshire. Also have a look at the area on our own Monty’s World.
• Stories I Have Tried to Write by M.R. James
  The plot of this story gets a mention by James in his essay ‘Stories I Have Tried to Write’ which we covered in a previous episode.
• Sinister Bible Quotes (Bible.cc)
  Like many James stories, John Humphreys quotes the bible in a number of places, notable the 23rd Psalm, Jeremiah xiii:16, Job x:21-22 and the Vulgate of St Jerome.
• Saint Cyprian and Saint Justina (Wikipedia)
  This story contains a reference to a ‘wizard’, apparently a reference to the story of St Cyprian and St Justina in the Golden Legend.
• … also mentioned in this episode were the Garbage Pail Kids and Bookshelf P*rn.

Also, we’d love to hear what you think about this story! Get in contact via Facebook, Twitter, Email or in the comments section below.