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.

Illustration by Alisdair Wood (woodnart.blogspot.com)

This episode Will & Mike slip into their cassocks, whip out their prayerbooks and head down to Southminster for ‘An Episode of Cathedral History’ by M.R. James.

Questions answered in this episode:
- When is a vampire not a vampire?
- Do Lamia have hairy legs?
- What length of skirt do Mike and Will wear?

Big thanks go out to Roger Burton West who provided the readings, and Alisdair Wood for the awesome custom illustration on the right!

Show notes

• The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens (wikipedia)
  This story refers twice to characters in Dickens’s famously unfinished novel ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’.
• Rochester Cathedral (Monty’s World)
  There are various suggestions in the story that M.R. James may have had Rochester Cathedral in mind while writing this story.
• Isaiah 34:14 (bible.cc)
  This website illustrated quite how much the Isaiah quote which appears in this story differs from one translation to another!
• Lamia  & Satyr (wikipedia)
  The latin quotes in this story make reference to two creatures from Greek Mythology, the Lamia and the Satyr.
• The Demon in the Cathedral by Rosemary Pardoe (Ghosts & Scholars)
  Apparently the plot of this story was used as part of a hoax played on Fate magazine in 1977!
• The Lamia and the Screech-owl by Peter Bell (Ghosts & Scholars)
  This essay examines ‘An Episode of Cathedral History’ and discusses the mythical creatures mentioned in the story.
• Charles Simeon (wikipedia)
  This story refers to ‘Simeon’s Lot’, a reference to the English evangelical preacher Charles Simeon, who James’s own father was a follower of.
• Patrick J Murphy (Miami University) & Fred Porcheddu (Denison University)
  Patrick and Fred are two American academics who are conducting research into the medaevalist and antiquarian background of M.R. James’s stories.
• Warnings to the Curious (Amazon.co.uk)
  During this episode we mention various essays which are featured in this book, including essays by Michael A. Mason, Jacqueline Simpson
• A Pleasing Terror (Amazon.co.uk)
  The excellent footnotes on this story in the ‘A Pleasing Terror’ ebook were of great help to us when researching this story.
• Speaker Lenthall’s Tomb (Ghosts & Scholars)
  The unfinished James tale dubbed by Rosemary Pardie ‘Speaker Lenthall’s Tomb’ bears some striking similarities to ‘An Episode of Cathedral History’.
• The Gothic Revival (Wikipedia)
  It is an understatement to say that M.R. James was not a big fan of the architectural changes undertaken in British churches in the name of the gothic revival during the 18th and 19th century.

Big thanks to our reader for this episode, the mighty Paul Maclean (@ysdc on Twitter). You may know Paul from the ‘Call of Cthulhu’ RPG hub Yog-Sothoth.com and it’s Lovecraftian publishing wing InnsmouthHouse.com. He is also one of the presenters of the News from Pnakotus and The Silver Lodge podcasts, both required listening for weird fiction and RPG fans!

Also big thanks to Alisdair Wood, the massively talented artist who provided us with the awesome specially-created ‘Diary of Mr Poynter’ artwork you can see above. You can find more exciting James-inspired artwork at Alisdair Wood’s website.

Show notes:

• Rendcomb Manor, Gloucestershire (Monty’s World)
  While in the story Rendcomb Manor is said to be in Warwickshire, the real Rendcomb Manor is in Gloucestershire. Now home to Rendcomb College, it is not clear if James had this ancient estate in mind when he wrote the story.
• Anti-vivisection movement and the Brown Dog Affair (Wikipedia)
  Miss Denton is an advocate of the Anti-vivisection moment, which was gathering momentum in the decade before this story was published.
• William Poynter, Bishop (Wikipedia)
  M.R. James borrowed the name of his diarist from an English bishop who published various religious tracts during the early 19th century.
• Dr Arthur Charlett, University College Oxford (Wikisource)
  Mr Poynter’s diary states that the famously hirsute (and presumably fictional) Everard Charlett was of the same family as Dr Arthur Charlett, who was Master of University College Oxford for 30 years until his death in 1722.
• Thomas Hearne, Antiquarian (Wikipedia)
  James mentions in the story that William Poynter argued with English antiquarian Thomas Hearne (1678 – 1735).
• Dr Robert Plot, Naturalist (Wikipedia)
  Mr Poynter’s diary suggests that there may be precedents for the strange death of Everard Charlett to be found in the work of Robert Plot. Plot English naturalist whose works mentioned strange natural phenomena such as the ‘double sunset’ at Leek in Staffordshire, a giants femur bone etc.
• Feast of St Jude and St Simon (CatholicCulture.org)
  James mentions that the curtains are finally delivered on the Feast of St Jude and St Simon, the 28th October. In his book Suffolk and Norfolk M.R. James notes that stained glass images of Jude and Simon can be found in the parish church at Denton in Norfolk, although his use of this as a name for his protagonist could be a coincidence!
• Thomas Philips, Antiquarian (Wikipedia)
  M.R. James mentions in the story that prior to purchase by James Denton, Mr Poynter’s diary was part of the ‘famous Thomas collection’ of manuscripts. Thomas Philips was an antiquarian and obsessive book collector who left a collection of around 100,000 books and manuscripts at the time of his death in 1872 which were auctioned off over a number of years.
• Ghosts and Scholars postcard (Ghosts & Scholars Website)
  Ghosts and Scholars are selling this rather scary bookmark featuring an image of Everard Charlett’s hairy coffin!
• Shakespeare authorship question (Wikipedia)
  In the story Mr Cattell makes a reference to ‘Hercules and the painted cloth’, which Rosemary Pardoe suggests may be a hint towards the argument/conspiracy theory that someone else may have written Shakespeare’s works.
• The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkin Gilman (Wikipedia)
  There are parallels between this story and the short story ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by American Writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman which was published in 1892. This story was also recently examined in detail by the HPPodcraft.
• Game of Bear Story Competition (thesuffolkcoast.co.uk)
  Suffolk Coast are running a competition for under 16′s to write an ending for M.R. James’s unfinished story Game of Bear. Closing date is 1st November, the winner will be selected by author Susan Hill.

In the essay Monty talks about what ingredients he thinks go to make up a really successful ghost story, and gives an insight into the supernatural fiction he rates most highly.

Links

• The ‘Not at Night’ series
• Society for Psychical Research
• Mr Wardle’s Fat Boy
• Sheridan Le Fanu
• William Harrison Ainsworth
• The Lancashire Witches (Novel by above)
• E.F Benson
• Algernon Blackwood
• A. M. Burrage
• Walter de la Mare
• H. Russell Wakefield
• Margaret Oliphant
• Lanoe Falconer

More black magic, strange visions, swarms of satanic flies and is that Beelzebub hiding in the closet? Or is it just R. Kelly? One things for sure, you’ll never look into your underwear draw in the same way again!

Show notes:

• William Oldys (wikipedia)
  This English antiquarian and bibliographer provided James with the inspiration for Dr Oldys in ‘Residence at Whitminster’.
• Sir Walter Scott – The Talisman (wikipedia)
  This is the book which Mary is reading in ‘Residence at Whitminster’ that puts the idea of talismans and scrying into her mind.
• Ichneumonoidea Fly aka Sawfly (wikipedia)
  Is this the strange species of insect that the inhabitants have such difficulty conclusively identifying?
• Anna Seward (wikipedia)
  Anna Seward, the ‘Swan of Lichfield’, is the English romantic poet whose prose style James parodies in Mary Oldys’s letter to her friend Emily.
• Beelzebub – The Lord of the Flies (wikipedia)
  Could the sorcery of Lord Saul have literally summoned up Beelzebub, the devil? In various texts Beelzebub appears in the form of a swarm of flies.
• M.R. James – The Fenstanton Witch (Ghosts & Scholars)
  Simon McCollough describes M.R. James’s unpublished short stoy ‘The Fenstanton Witch’ as a prototype for ‘Residence at Whitminster’. It also features a pair of young necromancers whose naive sorceries summon up a terrible winged creature, and also namechecks the Witch of Endor. ‘An Evening’s Entertainment’ by M.R. James also features a horrible swarm of flies, which a sexton describes as “Lord of the Flies, sir”.
• Salem’s Lot (1979) (youtube)
  This is the ‘window’ scene from the 1979 Stephen King adaptation which reminded Will of the ghost of Saul tapping at the villagers windows on cold winters nights.
• R.Kelly – Trapped in the Closet (youtube)
  The Oldys family are not the only ones with some closet trouble, check out R.Kelly’s magnum opus, his epic 22-part ‘hip-hopera’ “Trapped in the Closet”!

This episode features readings by Hamish Symington and Peter Ross.

Show Notes:

• M.R. James – An Informal Portrait by Michael Cox (Amazon)
  For details of Monty’s life during WWI we lean heavily on Michael Cox’s excellent biography. It is sadly now out of print but secondhand copies are available, if expensive. Try your local library before you splash out, they may be able to order it in for you.
• Warnings to the Curious (Ed. Joshi & Pardoe) (Amazon)
  We have recommended this many times before, but once again this great book of essays has helped a lot with our understanding of the story.
• Whitminster/Wheatenhurst, Gloucestershire (Googlemaps)
  The real Whitminster can be found here, although it was known as Wheatenhurst in James’s lifetime. More information on Whitminster House and estate, from which the place got it’s new name, can be found at british-history.ac.uk. Also see the Whitminster Community Website.
• Saul, in the Bible (Wikipedia)
  Lord Saul’s namesake appears in the Books of Samuel, and comes to a sticky end after some necromantic funny-business involving the Witch of Endor (no, not that Endor).
• Some Remarks on Ghost Stories by M.R. James (Ash Tree Press)
  In this episode we mention the M.R. James essay ‘Some Remarks on Ghost Stories’ which can be found in the ‘Pleasing Terror’ M.R. James anthology. The hardback is out of print but the eBook version is available.

Robert Lloyd Parry as M.R. James - photo by Shelagh Bidwell

On the 1st August it will be exactly 150 years since the birth of M.R. James, and in this special episode Will and Mike are celebrating Monty’s Sesquicentenary in style with the help of England’s finest Jamesian actor, Robert Lloyd Parry!

Robert had been performing his trilogy of one-man shows based on James’s work since 2005 and is also a noted expert on the life and work of M.R. James. In this exclusive interview for A Podcast to the Curious Robert talks about his experiences performing as Monty, how he goes about adapting James’s work for the stage and why he thinks M.R. James’s ghost stories are still so popular 76 years after his death.

More information on Robert Lloyd Parry’s future performances and dvds/cds can be found at www.nunkie.co.uk

This episode also features an exclusive listener-only CD offer for Robert Lloyd Parry’s ‘Curious Creatures: The Shorter Horror of M.R. James‘ audiobook. Details at the end of the episode!

Show notes:

• Two Ghosts & Scholars Essays
  We referred extensively to two outstanding examinations of the symbolism and antiquarian lore behind the story: Martin Hughes’, “A Maze of Secrets in a Story by M.R. James“, reprinted in Warnings to the Curious and “James Wilson’s Secret”, by Rosemary Pardoe and Jane Nicholls.  Both well worth a read.
• Mr Humphreys and his Inheritance (TV Version)
  This story was adapted in an abridged form for the ITV schools programme ‘Music Scene’ in the 1970′s. A very low quality rip is available on YouTube but we recommend you invest in the DVD of Casting the Runes which features a much higher quality version as an extra.
  
• Wilsthorpe (GoogleMaps)
  There are two real Wilsthorpes, one in Lincolnshire and the other in Yorkshire but there is no solid evidence that M.R. James was thinking of either when writing the story.
• Possible Maze Inspirations
  James new Suffolk and it’s stately homes like the back of his hand. With his in mind, could the yew maze in this story have been inspired by the similar yew maze at Somerleyton Hall, Suffolk, designed and planted in 1846? Like Wilsthorpe hall, the grounds have various classical/Italian features, including an globe-shaped equatorial sundial (decorated with astrological symbols) which reminds us of the globe in ‘Mr Humphreys…’.
  Rosemary Pardoe and Jane Nicholls speculate that the turf labyrinth at Hilton, Cambridgeshire may also have provided inspiration. It dates from the 17th century and would have certainly been known to James due to it’s close proximity to Cambride. It also features a central pillar at the centre, with a globe and an inscription in latin, that commemorates the death of the mazes creator William Sparrow (1641–1729).
• Mazes (Wikipedia)
  Wikipedia features useful introductions to both hedge mazes and mazes in general, including a list of notable mazes.
• Marjery Wardrop (Wikipedia)
  During this episode Will speculates that James’s choice of ‘Wardrop’ as a name may have been inspired by his contemporary folklorist Marjery Wardrop.
• Labyrinth (1986)
  The mad-as-a-bag-of-ferrets maze-fest much loved by Mike, starring David Bowie’s crotch. It’s like ‘Alive in Wonderland’, but with added muppets and musical numbers. Watch the trailer on YouTube or chech out the bonkers Magic Dance Sequence. And if you enjoyed that, why not check out the Top 10 Mazes in Films, although they miss out Will’s personal favourite Cube.

Unrequited love, scoundrel squires, courtroom highjinx, bloody judges, amorous yokels and barbarous murder are all on the cards. It’s like The Archers, but even more horrible. Strap in!

Don’t forget to check out our Visit to Martin’s Close Video on YouTube.

Show notes:

Notes on Martin’s Close by Rosemary Pardoe (Ghosts and Scholars) Ghosts and Scholars remains the number #1 source for Jamesian scholarship, and these notes on Martin’s Close are essential reading.

Sampford Courtenay, Devon (Wikipedia)
In the intro to ‘Complete Ghost Stories’ (1931) James admitted that the village he had in mind for Martin’s Close was Sampford Courtenay in Devon. Sampford Courtenay is perhaps more famous for the Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549.

The New Inn at Sampford Courtenay (www.the-newinn.com)
The pub featured in Martin’s Close is a real place, a grade II listed old coaching inn originally build in the 16th Century. Also see Google Street View.

Judge George Jeffreys (Wikipedia)
The anti-hero of Martin’s Close is the famous ‘bloody judge’ George Jeffreys. Jeffreys was given the dubious honour of a 1970′s horror treatment in The Bloody Judge (1970) in which he is protrayed as a sadistic villain.  But was he really a bloody-handed executioner or much-maligned champion of justice? You can find out more at cyberussr.com.

Madam, Will You Walk? (www.flutetunes.com)
The love song which is given such a sinister twist in Martin’s Close is a real one. The tune and lyrics can be found here, or also on www.contemplator.com. Also see YouTube for a rather nice Tin Whistle version under a different name.

A Source for Martin’s Close? by Murial Smith (Ghosts and Scholars)
As mentioned in the podcast, Murial Smith suggests that James may have taken inspiration for Martin’s Close from Annals of the Parish(1821) by John Galt which James is known to have read. Do have a look at the chapter for 1797 which has the story of Henry Malcombe and “poor haverel lassie Meg Gaffaw”, which might have inspired Monty to write ‘Martin’s Close’.

Was Ann Clark Pregnant? by Tina Rath (Ghosts and Scholars)
A controversial idea is set forward in this very interesting essay. James famously disapproved of sex in ghost stories, but the possibility that Ann Clark could be pregnant would certainly tie up a lot of loose ends in the story.

Thomas Gurney, Joseph Glanvill and John Dolben (Wikipedia)
Various minor names mentioned in Martin’s Close are those of real people. Thomas Gurney was an 18th Century courtroom shorthand writer. Joseph Glanvill was a 17th Century writer and philosopher who wrote a famous text on witchcraft. John Dolben was a 17th Century politician and barrister.

On the Care of the Dead by Augustine (Google Books)
Was Ann Clark an unholy vision, or divine vengeance? Monty namechecks Augustin’s letter On the Care of the Dead, which leaves both options open.

Red Barn Murders (Wikipedia)
We give the notorious 1827 ‘Red Barn Murders’ a mention during the podcast as an example where supernatural evidence has been presented in court.

The Spencer Cowper/ Sarah Stout (Newgate Calendar)
Another trial for murder from 1699 which bares some resemblance to the events of Martin’s Close. The son of the 2nd Baronet of Hertford was accused of murdering a young Quaker girl who had become infatuated with him.

Bonus video!

Camera in hand, Mike, Will and Kirsty head down to Devon to visit the real-world location of Martin’s Close…

Snow notes:

• The Double Shadow Podcast (www.thedoubleshadow.com)
  An exciting new podcast dedicated to American M.R. James admire Clark Ashton Smith.
• M.R. James performances by the Nunkie Theatre Company (www.nunkie.co.uk)
  Nunkie Theatre Company has announced another run of performances based on M.R. James stories performed by the grand panjandrum and actor Robert Lloyd Parry. He will be invoking a pleasing terror in audiences throughout the UK between July and December. Don’t miss!
• The Stalls of Barchester (1971 TV version – wikipedia)
  This story has been dramatised for the screen only once, back in 1971, as the first installment of  BBC television’s classic ‘Ghost Story for Christmas’ series. The series is finally being given the DVD treatment this year by the BFI.
• Anthony Trollope’s Chronicles of Barsetshire (wikipedia)
  Was M.R. James’s Barchester based on the identically-named cathedral town which features heavily in a series of books by Anthony T? Or is that just a load of old Trollope?
• The Gentlemen’s Magazine (wikipedia)
  In this story Archdeacon Haynes’s obituary is said to have featured in the Gentleman’s magazine, which ran between 1731 and 1922.
• Sir George Gilbert Scott (wikipedia)
  The cathedral in James’s story is said to have been redesigned by Sir Gilbert Scott. James was not a fan of the rather radical changes which architects like Scott inflicted on English churches during the 19th century.
• The Friar of Orders Grey (recmusic.com)
  Haynes’s description of the choir stalls describes one as appearing like a ‘friar of orders grey’. This is a nod to a popular folk ballad about a bawdy Franciscan friar.
• St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle (BBC Website)
  The ornate carvings described in this story could have been inspired by the misericords at a chapel in Windsor, near Eton where James spent much of his life. He went on to write a book about them in 1933 – ‘St Geroge’s Chapel, Windsor: The Woodwork of the choir’.
• Warnings to the Curious (hippocampuspress.com)
  In this episode we mention various essays which appear in the excellent ‘Warnings to the Curous’, including essays by John Alfred Taylor and Steven J. Mariconda.

Show notes:

• Comparative Mythology and the Cambridge Ritualists (Wikipedia)
  The criticism of Karswell’s writing style could be read as M.R. James having a dig at his academic contemporaries working in theoretical subjects that James thought were nonsense. For example see James’s ‘flaying’ of Jane Ellen Harrison (erratum: we incorrectly call her ‘Katherine Harrison’ in recording, sorry!).
• The Golden Legend and The Golden Bough (Wikipedia)
  The two very different texts which Mr Karswell is described as putting exactly on par and taking both as historical fact.
• Thomas Bewick (1753-1826) (Wikipedia)
  The “woodcut of Bewick’s” mentioned in Casting the Runes refers to English wood engraver Thomas Bewick, whose work varied between both studies of nature and the bawdy and macabre. For example a man followed by demons, a man urinating on a wall, and men riding gravestones.
• The ‘Black Spot’ (Wikipedia)
  James refers to the ‘black spot’ being put on John Harrington, a reference to Treasure Island (1883) by Robert Lewis Stevenson.
• The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Project Gutenberg)
  The extract from the poem which Karswell sends to Harrington can be found in ‘Part the Sixth’ of Coleridge’s ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner).
• Lord Warden Hotel, Dover (www.dover-kent.co.uk)
  Dunning and Harrington finish their adventure at a real hotel in Dover, the Lord Warden. The building is still there today, but no longer a hotel.
• St. Vulfran’s Church, Abbeville, France (Wikipedia)
  Karswell meets his death at a French church that M.R. James had visited on a previous holiday. The church is dedicated to St. Vulfran (or Wulfram) of Sens. Karswell’s death reminded us of the death of Adam Buxton’s character in Hot Fuzz (youtube – warning, it is gory!).
• Casting the Runes (1979) (Irish Gothic Horror Journal)
  An excellent review of the 1979 tv version of Casting the Runes. As mentioned in the podcast, we also didn’t rate it very highly but still recommend you purchase the dvd if only for the interesting extras that come on the disc.
• Kate Bush/Night of the Demon mashup (Youtube)
  The “it’s in the trees! It’s coming!” sample from the start of Kate Bush’s ‘Hounds of Love’ is a sample from Night of the Demon, the 1957 film of Casting the Runes. Thanks to @rodmckie for drawing our attention to this superb video mashup which combines footage from ‘Night of the Demon’ with various Kate Bush footage to great effect.
• For more Casting the Runes-related links, see the show notes for part one.

Also! Robert Lloyd Parry was announced the next run of his excellent M.R. James stage performances between July and December 2012, including the world premier of his new show featuring ‘Count Magnus’ and ‘Number 13′! For more information visit the Nunkie Productions Website.

Show notes:

• Magic Lanterns (Wikipedia)
  Mr Karswell was not the first to use a magic lantern to scare the crap out of his audience, it’s been going on since the 15th century!
• Aleister Crowley (Wikipedia)
  Many have commented on the similarities between the fictional Mr Karswell and the English occultist, poet and mountaineer Aleister Crowley (1875-1947).
• ‘Class War in Casting the Runes’ by Mike Pincombe (Ghosts & Scholars)
  Mike Pincombe’s exploration of class conflict in Casting the Runes is a must-read.
• Night/Curse of the Demon (1957) (Trailer – Youtube)
  The first and best screen adaptation of ‘Casting the Runes’ was filmed in 1957 as ‘Night of the Demon’ (released as ‘Curse of the Demon’ in the U.S.). Superbly atmospheric and worth watching for Niall MacGuiness’s exemplary performance as Mr Karswell. It is available on DVD.
• Casting the Runes (1979) (Amazon)
  Casting the Runes was brought forward to the seventies in this 50 minute UK tv version. It is clearly very low budget and not very good to be honest, but still worth purchasing on DVD as it is cheap and comes with two decent extras, a short tv version of ‘Mr Humphreys and his Interitance’ and a very enjoyable documentary about the author.
• Drag me to Hell (2009) (Trailer – Youtube)
  Sam Raimi’s 2009 splatter-fest ‘Drag me to Hell’ is a loose (and unacknowledged) adaptation of ‘Casting the Runes’. James would have hated it but fans of OTT gorefests will love it!
• Lamplough’s Pyretic Saline (Ghosts & Scholars)
  This is the ‘highly convincing’ advert that Dunning examins in the tram shortly before spotting the strange message about John Harrington.
• The British Library (bl.co.uk)
  The real-world location of Dunning’s first encounter with Karswell.
• London United Tramways (Wikipedia)
  In ‘Casting the Runes’ Dunning travels to work and back on the then-new London tram network operating in the west and south of London.
• A Podcast to the Curious Merchandise Store
  That’s right, you can now grab yourself an Official APTTC t-shirt in a wide range of exciting colours! It’s what all the cool kids are wearing nowadays!

Questions addressed in this episode include: Does Mr Eldred like MC Hammer? Did Sir Jimmy Saville make a pact with the devil? Is Miss Simpson a slamming hotty or merely a comely wench? And is it even politically correct to call someone a wench in this day and age?

Show Notes:

• The Lost Will of Dr Rant (1951) (archive.org)
  This American television version of ‘The Tractate Middoth’ was part of the ‘Lights Out’ mystery series, and stars none other than a young Leslie Nielson!
• Cambridge University Library (cam.ac.uk)
  The real world location of this story was the university library at Cambridge, though the current library is no longer housed in the same building as it was in James’s time.
• Bredfield, Suffolk (googlemaps)
  The likely real-world location of Dr Rant/Mr Eldred’s house, Bredfield in Suffolk. Note Melton station about three miles to the south east (or shorter if you go across country!).
• E.W. Pugin (1834 – 1875) (Wikipedia)
  Information on E.W. Pugin, who may or may not be linked to this story.
• The Real Tractate Middoth (google books)
  More information on the real book can be read in ‘A history of the Mishnaic law of Holy Things, Volume 2′, available on Google Books.
• Squire Toby’s Will by J. Sheridan le Fanu (horrormasters.com)
  The plot of this story by M.R. James’s favourite author of ghost stories bares some resemblance to the plot of ‘The Tractate Middoth’.
• Piccadilly Weepers and More (oook.info)
  Information on Piccadilly/Dundreary Weepers and other fabulous contemporary facial hair styles can be found here.
• Tractate Middoth Postcard & Bookmark (Ghosts & Scholars)
• Burial of William McKenzie (forteantimes.com)
  Liverpool architect and builder William McKenzie (1794 – 1851) was supposedly buried sitting up in a pyramid-shaped tomb to trick the devil, to whom he had sold his soul in exchange for luck at cards.
• Burial of Sir Jimmy Saville (telegraph.co.uk)
  We were slightly mistaken in the podcast, Sir Jimmy Saville was not buried sitting up but propped up at a 45 degree angle so he could ‘see the sea’!

Show notes:

• Popish Plot Playing Cards (BritishMuseum.org)
  Having trouble getting your head around the popish plot? Why not invest in a pack of Popish Plot Playing Cards! Alas hundreds of years out of print. The Seven of Hearts is the one of Edward Coleman being ‘drawn’ to his execution behind a horse, and the Six of Diamonds is also particularly gruesome.
• M.R. James’s Women by David G. Rowlands (Ghosts & Scholars)
  This essay looks at the small selection of women who appear in James’s work, including ‘The Rose Garden’s Mrs Anstruther.
• “The Rules of Folklore” in the Ghost Stories of M.R. James by Jacqueline Simpson
  Landmarks and Shrieking Ghosts by Jacqueline Simpson
  An excellent pair of essays originally published in Ghosts & Scholars that drew our attention to the influence of Danish and Suffolk folklore on ‘The Rose Garden’.
• Weald Country Park, Essex (Wikipedia)
  The site of the former Weald Hall, residence of the terrible Sir William Scroggs and the possible real-world ‘Westfield Hall’. The hall fell into disrepair and was pulled down after world war II but the park can still be visited and looks like a nice day out!
• Victims of the Popish Plot (Wikipedia)
  Wikipedia provides a brief rundown of those accused during the popish plot. Play special attention to Sir William Scroggs, Oliver Plunkett and Edward Colman!
• The Head of Oliver Plunkett (Wikipedia)
  As mentioned in this episode, popish plot victim Oliver Plunkett’s head is on display in Drogheda, Ireland. A possible inspiration for the strange face in ‘The Rose Garden’?
• Proceedings against Sir William Scroggs (on Google Books)
  Cobbett’s Complete Collection of State Trials features a transcript of the indictment against Sir William Scroggs that makes very interesting (and frequently humorous) reading.
• Gaude, Gaudy, Domini in Laude by Roger Johnson
  The essay that drew my attention to Weald Hall was featured in the Ghosts & Scholars Newsletter 15, not available online but an incentive (if more were needed) to subscribe to this foremost Jamesian news source.
• Eastscapes: Doggerland
  Photographic work by friend of the podcast and M.R. James fan David Senior will be on display at the House Gallery in Camberwell, London from the 15-22nd March 2012 as part of his collaboration with artists Misa Tamura and Dan Howse.

Errata: Since recording we have been informed that the correct term is ‘Hanged’ rather than ‘Hung’. Could we be arsed to go back and re-record? We could not.

That’s right, it’s ‘A School Story’!

N.b. If you have forgotten your gym-kit, you have to listen to this episode in your vest and pants.

Show notes:

• The History of Temple Grove School (.pdf)
  The school in ‘A School Story’ is based on the prep school that M.R. James attended, Temple Grove School which was at the time based in East Sheen, London.
• Site of Temple Grove School on Googlemaps
  Temple Grove School is not longer in existance, but this gives an idea of where the parkland in which it stood used to be. Note Well Lane where the old stable stands (now converted to a very nice looking house) and where we spotted yew trees! In the photo of us below we are standing at the north-eastern end of Observatory road, where the lake used to be. This Map from 1895 gives an indication of where the school stood (see ‘H’), and this map shows the layout of Temple Grove Estate in 1811.
• “I’ve Seen It!” – A School Story and the House in Berkeley Square by Rosemary Pardoe
  Here Rosemary Pardoe provides some background information on the legends surrounding the famously haunted 50 Berkeley Square in London, mentioned in ‘A School Story’.
• Ancient Coin Pendants
  Jewelry such as the ‘coin charm’ that Mr Sampson wears on his watch chain is not hard to come by these days! For more info on Byzantine coins see Wikipedia.
• Eton and Kings (Ghosts & Scholars)
  M.R. James published a volume of recollections about his life at school and in academia.
• Ancient Yews Group FAQs
  Yew trees are a common sight in English churchyards. The Ancient Yew Group website provides some interesting information on the historical and mythological significance of yew trees.
• ‘A School Story’ at FreakyTrigger
  Some excellent analysis of this story at FreakyTrigger, plus some interesting views in the comments.
• ‘The Well’ by W.W. Jacobs
  This story, published in 1902 by James’s contemporary W.W. Jacobs, features some similarities to ‘A School Story’. Mike Pincombe highlights this story in his excellent essay ‘Homosexual Panic and the English Ghost Story’ (Ghosts & Scholars Newsletter 9).

Visit to the Site of Temple Grove School, East Sheen

Top: Temple Grove Estate, East Sheen, 1812
Bottom: Mike & Will at Temple Grove Estate, East Sheen, 2012.

Can you spot the differences? Hint: top image = more bonnets, bottom image = less swans.

We are standing in the slight dip in Observatory Rd that marks where the lake stood 200 years before. Mike had brought his umbrella to fight off the swans. Turns out this was unneccesary.

Show notes:

• Steinfeld Abbey & Glass (also see Googlemaps)
  Read about the read-world location of this story on wikipedia.
• The Treasure of Steinfeld Abbey, A Visit to the Scene of “The Treasure of Abbot Thomas” by Helen Grant
  Interesting account of a visit to Steinfeld, in which Helen Grant compares the real abbey to the one described by M.R. James.
• Ashridge Park
  This story was inspired by James’s own study of the stained glass at Ashridge Park in 1904. The glass is now in the Victoria & Albert museum in London, and the park is now home to Ashridge Business School (check out the cool virtual tour!)
• Steinfeld stained glass in Wales
  To illustrate how widely glass from Germany and Belguim circulated in Britain, here some more of the Steinfeld stained glass shows up in a church in Wales!
• Review at GhostingImages.com
  An excellent review of the 1974 tv version.
• Origin of “Gare à qui la touche” (“Woe to he that touches it”)
  The origin of this ominous phrase appears to be Napoleonic!
• An Introduction to Classical Cryptography by William Stalling
  A useful guide for those who wish to get their head around the cryptographic puzzles solved by Mr Somerton.
• ‘A Pleasing Terror’ (Ash Tree Press)
  This definitive anthology of and commentary on James work is now available as an e-book.
• Ghost Stories of Christmas at the BFI Mediateque
  You can currently watch the BBC’s classic M.R. James tv adaptations at the BFI Mediateque centres.

Thanks again to Tom Hemmings who lent us his wonderful voice for the readings, and to Dave Senior (EastScapes) for the excellent groyne photo.

Show notes:

• ‘The Toad in the Study: M.R. James, H.P. Lovecraft & Forbidden Knowledge’ by Simon McCulloch
  This essay first appeared in Ghosts & Scholars 20-23, and can now be found in ‘Warnings to the Curious’, a book of excellent criticism edited by Rosemary Pardoe and S.T. Joshi.
• ‘Innocents and Not-So-Innocents in the Stories of M. R. James’ by John Alfred Taylor
  Another essay featured in ‘Warnings to the Curious’ which explores and categorises what M.R. James’s characters did (if anything) to deserve the horrors that confront them.
• Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972)
  Read more about this Templar-tastic Spanish horror film which features many ‘Oh, Whistle…’-esque qualities.

For more ‘Oh, Whistle…’-related links, see the post for Episode 7a.

Big thanks to Tom Hemmings who returns as our reader for this episode.

Show Notes

• ‘Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad’ by M.R. James
  Read the full text at Wikisource.
• Felixstowe Golf Course and Beach on GoogleMaps
  Here can be seen the real-world setting of ‘Oh, Whistle…’
• 1968 TV version on Youtube
  Watch the BBCs classic adaptation, starring Michael Horden.
• 2010 TV version on IMDB
  Read about the BBCs recent tv adaptation, starring John Hurt.
• Review of the 2010 TV version at The Gothic Imagination
  Includes some very interesting discussion in the comments section.
• The Quadruple Object and Ontography
  A website explaining the area of modern study now known at Ontography.
• Pilgrim’s Progress Quote
  This is the section of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress that comes to Parkins’ mind when seeing a figure following him along the beach.
• “I Shall Most Likely Be out on the Links”: Golf as Metaphor in the Ghost Stories of M. R. James. by Terry W. Thompson
  A really interesting essay relevant to this story.
• The meaning of “Fur/Fla/Fle/Bus” at Ghosts & Scholars
  Ghosts & Scholars provides a summary of the various speculations about the meaning of the text found on the whistle.
• Photo of the beach below Cobbolds Point, Felixstowe circa 1900
  The more touristy part of the beach at Felixstowe, south of where Parkins had his horrible experience.
• Info on the Felixstowe Bath Hotel | Photo of Felixstowe Bath Hotel
  This is the hotel on which James based The Globe Inn in ‘Oh, Whistle…’. The hotel is sadly no more, having been burned down by Suffragette arsonists on April 28th 1914!
• Image of ‘The Lodge’ Felixstowe | ‘The Lodge’ on GoogleMaps
  This is the house owned by James’s friend Felix Cobbold, and where parties of friends from Kings College would meet for holidays (and probably a round of golf or two at the nearby golf course).
• Penelope Fitzgerald on M.R. James
  In this 2000 article for the Guardian, author Penelope Fitzgerald examines James the man as well as James the writer and compares James’s personality to that of Parkins in ‘Oh, Whistle…’
• ‘Bleak and Solemn…’ at k-punk
  This article retraces the Norfolk and Suffolk locations used in the filming of the 1960′s TV versions of ‘Oh, Whistle…’ and ‘A Warning to the Curious’. Photos are provided to show the locations as they are today (well, in 2007).
• Knights Templar on Wikipedia
  Read about the history of this much-maligned order of religious knights.

• What is the connection between Count Magnus and Ghostbusters 2?
• Will sewing your corpse into the carcass of a deer save your soul from the devil?
• Would Mr Wraxall prefer to have been shot in the balls by Robocop?

Answers to these questions and much, much more can be found in this bumber festive edition of the greatest and only M.R. James podcast! This episode features readings by Chris Savory.

Show notes:

• About the real Count Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie (Wikipedia)
• An image and map of the real manor at Råbäck
• Varnham Abbey, the site of the mausoleum of Count Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie (Wikipedia)
• ‘The Familiar’ by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (Full text at Gaslight)
• The Black Pilgrimage to Chorazin by Rosemary Pardoe and Jane Nicholls (Ghosts & Scholars)
• Dark Devotions – M.R. James and the Magical Tradition by Ron Weighell (Ghosts & Scholars)
• About Chorazin (Wikipedia)
• The Tale of the Witch of Berkeley by Rob Hardy (twistedtree.org.uk)

* This edition may or may not feature Mike and Will singing an exclusive acapella rendition of ‘Oh Come All Ye Faithful’, accompanied by the choir of King’s College, Cambridge (spoiler alert: it doesn’t).

Also in this episode Will and Mike:

• Coin ‘The Jamesian Wallop’
• Tackle the schleswig-holstein question
• Discuss hellish subjects such as alchemy, German sunlounger etiquette, and Toploader
• Inexplicably find something funny about the phrase ‘the Danish area’

Show notes & links:

• Viborg on Wikipedia and Googlemaps.
• ‘The Shadow of the Occupant of Number 13′ by Helen Grant (at Ghosts and Scholars)
• The Significance of Number 13 (at Squidoo)
• ‘Warnings to the Curious’ by S.T. Joshi & Rosemary Pardoe (ed) (at Amazon)

Don’t forget to join us for our next episode when we will be looking at ‘Count Magnus’!

Regular service will resume in a few weeks when Mike returns from his reckless galavanting.

Notes

‘Stories I have Tried to Write’ was written by M.R. James in November of 1929 and first published at the end of that month in ‘The Touchstone 2’, a publication of Eton College where James was Provost at the time. The editors would no doubt have preferred to have received a completed ghost story of the sort James had produced for the Eton Boy Scouts two years previously (‘Wailing Well’, one of the last James ghost stories to find print during his lifetime) but instead they received a short essay in which James runs briefly through a number of story ideas that never saw completion.
Some of these stories are the merest hint of an idea (the Christmas cracker, the tap on the shoulder) while others provide the outline of an almost completed story, with settings, characters, names and so on all prepared. As James mentions in the essay, some of these stories he not only tried to write, but did write, only later deciding they were not good enough for publication. A draft of the Marcilly-le-Hayer story can be found among James’s papers in King’s College Library and was publishes in Ghosts & Scholars 22 in 1996. Likewise, the draft of the story involving two students at King’s was found and published in Ghosts & Scholars 12 as ‘The Fenstanton Witch’.
Other story elements James mentions in the essay hint at plot devices that James did actually use in some of his published stories, for instance the mask that appears amongst the curtains brings to mind the leering face that peers through the hedge in ‘The Rose Garden’ and similarly in James’s story ‘A Vignette’, a story written in 1935 and not published until after his death in 1936. James’s reference to ‘common objects being vehicles of malice’ was an idea he later fleshed out into the macabrely humorous fable ‘The Malice of Inanimate Objects’ which was printed in another Eton publication, ‘The Masquerade 1’ in 1933.
The essay saw wider publication when it was included in The Collected Ghost Stories of M.R. James (Arnold 1931), and since that time many authors have yielded to the temptation to flesh James’s ideas out into complete stories. The most notable being Sheila Hodgson who produced not only a series of stories based on the ideas (published by Ash Tree Press in 1998 as ‘The Fellow Travellers and Other Ghost Stories’), but a highly enjoyable series of radio plays which were broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1976 and 1992. As far as I am aware these radio plays have never seen the light of day on cassette or cd but can be tracked down by anyone with a search engine, bit torrent client and ‘relaxed’ attitude towards copyright law. Or so I am told. *cough*.
More information on the essay and the various stories it has inspired can be found in the excellent ‘Stories I Have Tried to Write’ story notes at Ghosts & Scholars.

1. Is it unlucky to sleep in a room near an ash tree?
2. Is Mrs Mothersole a MILF?
3. Are you down with the Castringham Sickness?

If you answered ‘yes’ to one or more of the above then pull your deep leather armchair closer to the roaring fire, refill your glass of port and prepare to join Mike and Will as they delve into dark and devilish goings on in 17th & 18th century  rural Suffolk in M.R. James’s The Ash-tree!

Big thanks to Katy Ross (@dreamkitten) who was our reader for this episode.

Links

• Great Livermere on GoogleMaps
  M.R. James grew up in Great Livermere and it is widely believed to be the inspiration for Castringham, the setting of ‘The Ash-tree’.
• Photo of Livermere Hall
  Sadly the hall on which Castringham Hall was based was demolished in 1923 but a photo of it can be found at the Lost Heritage website. Note the extensive growth of foliage visible around the sides of the hall!
• ‘The Ash-tree’ story notes at Ghosts & Scholars
  Exemplary M.R. James resource Ghosts & Scholars features an excellent set of story notes on The Ash-tree penned by M.R. James expert Rosemary Pardoe.
• James & Great Livermere at SuffolkCoast.co.uk
  An interesting article about James’s connection to Great Livermere and stories it inspired.
• Sortes Sanctorum & Sortes Biblicae at Wikipedia
  The history and origins of using the Bible for divination.
• Spiders in ‘The Ash Tree’ by Jacqueline Simpson
  An article from the Ghosts & Scholars Newsletter no. 5 on James’s use of spiders in The Ash-tree, with particular reference to a peculiar mini-plague of spiders that hit Bury St. Edmond’s in 1660!
• Bible Quotes from The Ash-tree @ Bible.cc
  ‘Cut it down’ – Luke 13:9
  ‘It shall never be inhabited’ – Isaiah 13:20
  ‘Her young ones also suck up blood’ – Job 29:30
  ‘Thou shall seek me in the morning and I shall not be’ – Job 7:21

In this episode:

• Terror!
• Art!
• Golf!
• Alternative endings!
• How NOT to choose a babysitter!
• Mike gets all sentimental about his university days.
• Will moans a lot and bellows “In your FACE Cambridge!”

Also in this episode:

• Mike tweaks his hurgy gurdy around the house
• Will says ‘Dun Dun Duuunnn!’ more than is strictly necessary
• We both says ‘evocative’ more than is strictly necessary and then get really, really depressed

A big THANKS goes out to Kirsty Woodfield who brought a much-needed touch of class to the proceedings by doing an excellent job with the readings.

Show notes:

• Read Lost Hearts at thin-ghost.org
• Aswarby Hall on Google Maps
• St. Michan’s Church, Dublin
• Orpheus and the Orphic Poems
• The Worship of Mithras and Mystery Religions
• Neoplatonism
• Simon Magus

Also in this episode: Mike grumbles bitterly about carnival folk while Will insults Bury St. Edmonds before whipping out his Testament of Soloman and scrawling a cock and balls in the margin.

Show notes & links:

• Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook (in .pdf format)
• Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges at Wikipedia
• Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges on GoogleMaps
• A picture of the famous crocodile!
• Study Guide at LitGothic.com
• Ghosts & Scholars Website