This episode Mike and Will report on the the M.R. James conference, aka ‘Haunted Studies: The Ghost Stories of M.R. James’ and bring you interviews with a range of Jamesian luminaries present at the event.
Dewi Evans (Acedemia.edu)
Dewi, along with Jane Mainley-Piddock, organised the conference. You can read more from Dewi at his blog, or follow him on Twitter.
Ruth Harris
Ruth impressed us with her paper ‘”If I’m not careful, something of this kind may happen to me!”: M.R. James and the Academic Nightmare’
Ramsey Campbell (ramseycampbell.com)
As England’s most celebrated living horror author, Ramsey Campbell needs little introduction. His opening keynote ‘M.R. James and the Ghost Story Tradition’ got the conference off to a flying start.
Steve Manthorp (manthorp.co.uk)
Steve was at the conference exhibiting his fascinating full-size dolls house based on ‘The Haunted Doll’s House’ by M.R. James. You can find our more about Steve at his website and at ADEPT.
Dr Andrew Smith (shef.ac.uk)
Andrew is Reader in Nineteenth Century English Literature at the University of Sheffield, and provided the day’s final keynote on ‘M.R. James and the Ghosts of World War 1’.
Richard Mansfield (mansfielddark.com)
Richard is one half of Mansfield Dark, who have been impressing us for a number of years with their haunting shadow puppet films of M.R. James stories, two of which were shown at the conference. Find out more about these at their website.
This episode Mike and Will pack their sleeping bags and bed down for ‘A Night in King’s College Chapel’ by M.R. James.
The episode also features an exclusive interview with James Drewett and Richard Svensson, creators of ‘Monsters and Miscreants’ a new M.R. James-themed card game available to order now. You can also watch an unboxing video of the same game featuring your humble hosts, Will and Mike, recorded live in Will’s kitchen. The glamour!
Props also go to Ivory Graphics, the company responsible for printing the card game.
If you are curious about James’s other still-in-development M.R. James card game ‘Cards for the Curious’, watch this Youtube video to find out more.
Show notes:
A Night in Kings College Chapel by M.R. James (Ghosts & Scholars)
You can read the full text of this story at the ever-useful Ghosts & Scholars website.
The Univeristy Pitt Club
The final fragment of this story was found written on Pitt Club note paper, hinting at where James may have been sitting when he wrote it.
‘Dare to be a Daniel’ (Youtube)
It is likely that this is the sort of thing James was afraid of when he makes his sniffy comments about ‘congregational singing’!
Reuben and the well (Biblehub.com)
Genesis 37:29 – the scene from the bible that Reuben is supposed to be representing in his window when ‘on duty’.
Moses and the Manna from heaven (biblegateway.com)
Exodus 16 – where the Manna comes from which the naughty children of Israel are throwing at Reuben in the story.
Biblical typology (theopedia.com)
When Reuben says “I may only be a type…” he is referring to this.
The most misunderstood woman in the bible (todayschristianwoman.com)
In this story Job’s wife is portrayed as an unsympathetic nagging tyrant, a traditional interpretation of her character. However, more modern minds have reassessed her character and come to a different conclusion.
Window of opportunity (spectator.co.uk)
During the episode Mike mentions the surprising story of how King’s College Chapel got it’s famous west window. This is it!
The windows themselves (mostly at therosewindow.com):
This episode Mike and Will dust off their acting chops and take to the stage as they cover Auditor and Impresario, M.R. James’s little-know comic play! Expect diabolism, drama, demons and dreadful sub-GCSE-level acting!
The image to the right is none other than M.R. James himself, playing they the part of Peithetairos in an 1883 student production of Aristophanes’ The Birds at Cambridge. The play was performed in the original Greek, naturally!
Show notes:
To our knowledge this play is currently only available in Ash Tree Press’s A Pleasing Terror. Currently only available in eBook form, but an essential purchase for any James fan in our opinion.
This play was not the only thing inspired by the 1906 student production of Dr Faustus. It inspired the formation of the Marlowe Dramatic Society, which is still going today.
In this episode we ruminate on the connections between this play and Rupert Brooke, who starred in the production of Dr Faustus which preceded the writing of this play.
One figure who looms large over this play is M.R. James’s very good friend J.W. Clarke. Clarke (or ‘J’ to his friends) was a prominent figure at Cambridge and a great supporter of the Amateur Dramatic Club.
Gyp, and a whole range of other mysterious terms are explained in this article on the slang and jargon of Cambridge University. For a chuckle we recommend checking out the references to âGreat Court Runâ, âGrad-bashingâ, âHillâ, âOpen scholarshipâ, âPuntingâ, âSent downâ, âSex clubâ and âSuicide sundayâ.
More details on James’s involvement with drama at Cambridge can be found in James’s Eton and Kings.
