Seasons greetings listeners! For this special festive episode Mike and Will turn off the lights and dive into the wardrobe for a game of hide-and-shriek, courtesy of A.M. Burrageās Christmas classic āSmeeā!
Big thanks go to our reader this week Kirsty Woodfield.
Also mentioned in this episode were āThe Dead Roomā, the new Mark Gatiss ghost story due to air at 10pm on BBC4 this Christmas Eve. Also Robert Lloyd Parry, who is going to be live-streaming a performance of an M.R. James ghost story on Facebook this Christmas Eve at 7pm.
Last but not least, donāt forget to test your M.R. James knowledge with Montyās Quiz, our brand new (and 100% free) quiz game with over 300 M.R. James-based multiple-choice questions!
Show notes
- A.M. Burrage (wikipedia)
- Smee by A.M. Burrage (original version)
The easiest way to get hold of the original/full version of this story isĀ to shell out for the ebook fromĀ Burrage Publishing. - Smee by A.M. Burrage (abridged version)
This is the abridged (and free-to-read) version of ‘Smee’ that seems to be doing the rounds online, masquerading as the original story. We believe it has it’s origins as a simplified version of the story intended for those learning English as a foreign language! - Who was A.M. Burrage? (greatwarfiction.wordpress.com)
This biographical essay focuses on Burrages life rather than his ghost stories, but features a wealth of information about the man himself. - A Review of Smee (booksofdaniel.com)
This interesting essay explored how āSmeeā fits in to the wider tradition of Christmas ghost stories. - A Game of Bear by M.R. James (Ghosts & Scholars)
The framing of āSmeeā bears (ahem) similarities to an unfinished M.R. James story draft, which also makes reference to the hidden terrors lurking in party games that āentail stealthy creepings up and down staircases and along passages, and being leapt upon from doorways with loud and hideous cries.ā - Deadly Game or Hide and Seek (seeksghosts.blogspot.com)
This blog post explored the āMistletoe Boughā, a classic German ghost story dating back to the early 19th century which features an unfortunate bride whose wedding day game of hide and seek turns deadly! The story inspired one of the first celluloid Christmas ghost stories in 1904.
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Tags: A.M. Burrage, Christmas, Ghost Stories, Hide-and-seek, M.R. James, Smee
This story is included in The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories, selected by Michael Cox and R.A. Gilbert. Your local library might have it.
Have you listened to The Haunting of MR James https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001pjh
Thanks for the story! I am really glad you are still doing this show, it’s always a welcome escape into the realms of fiction. Scary Christmas!
In The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories version, Mrs. Gorman is insured by three “firms” but I was sure I’d run across insurance linked to newspapers before, and after a bit of thought and Mrs.-Maple-style online-noodling-around, it came to me that it’s a central plot-point in P.G. Wodehouse’s 1923 story “Ukridge’s Accident Syndicate” (a.k.a. “Ukridge, Teddy Weeks and the Tomato”). From the Wikipedia plot-summary: The story is told in flashback as Ukridge and his friend James Corcoran stand outside the wedding of one Teddy Weeks, a successful movie star. The tale begins some years earlier, when Weeks was a struggling actor who believed all he needed to get his breakthrough role was a decent wardrobe. Ukridge, Corocoran, Weeks and others are dining at their regular haunt when one of their number reveals he has acquired accident insurance as a bonus for subscribing to a magazine, and has subsequently received five pounds after a minor cycling accident. Ukridge is inspired by this, and persuades his comrades to form a syndicate, subscribing to all magazines offering this free insurance, arranging an “accident” and splitting the insurance monies. Lots are drawn, and Weeks is selected as the one to be insured and to suffer the accident. [hijinks ensue]
Great episode guys and a super quiz but I think Mcleod was a fellow scot a highland boy not Irish!
Thanks for another great episode! Sorry to hear that a few complainers are stopping you talking about sexual politics though. The social context of ghost stories is one of the things that make them so important, and I was always interested to hear what you thought.
Crossing fingers you’ll relent and not be censored by people who only want a shallow reading of these great (and occasionally not so great) stories.
It was nice to hear both A podcast to the curious an hppodcraft cover Smee in the Christmas editions of their esteemed shows, perhaps this was by design? For anyone interested http://hppodcraft.com/2018/12/27/episode-433-a-strange-christmas-game-smee/ I enjoyed them both, different perspectives are always interesting. Thank you chaps. Two comments for the effort of one.
I can never catch these podcasts less than a month after they are uploaded…
Great choice – I did catch the abridged version on youtube years ago without realizing it was abridged. I’m glad to have heard the original.
Regarding complaints when you comment on sexual politics etc. – you have a good track record of not going too far off track and keeping centered on the story at hand. Sometimes I agree with your points, sometimes I think you are definitely looking at things the wrong way, but either way I want to know that you are not refraining from making comments you think are pertinent. I don’t listen to this podcast just to hear myself think.
Smee is a fine Christmas ghost story with an excellent setting and pretext, even if it seems quite conventional nowadays.
I think the growing realization Jackson has of something wrong, sitting in the window seat in the dark, is masterfully done. Again, this is the creeping tactile horror that M. R. James was so fond of. The way Burrage states, āAnd out of the darkness beside me the whisper came: āBrenda Fordā, is concise, direct and unforgettable.
The 1945 portmanteau film, āDead of Nightā with Melvyn Johns, features a very similar childrenās party story to Smee, also set at Christmas. The story was written by Angus McPhail, who also wrote or co-wrote the screen plays to a number of Will Hayās later comedies.