This episode Will and Mike hitch up their cassocks, pack their prayer books and head to ‘Southshire’ to open ‘A Room in a Rectory’ by Sir Andrew Caldecott!

Big thanks to Kirsty who provided the readings for this episode, and to Garry Platt who provided the photo that accompanies this episode. You can see more of Garry’s photos at his Instagram account.

Show notes:

• Sir Andrew Caldecott (wikipedia)
  You can find out about Caldecott’s life and exalted career in the Colonial Office at his wikipedia page.
• ‘Not Exactly Ghosts’ (Project Gutenberg Australia)
  While Caldecott’s stories are not quite out of copyright in most countries, you can still read the volume of ghost stories that ‘A Room in a Rectory’ comes from in its entirety online at Project Gutenberg Australia.
• St Michael defeating Satan (wikipedia)
  If you are trying to visualise the stained glass window that features in this story, head over to this wikipedia page where you can see a number of artistic interpretations of this very scene.
• Hymns Ancient and Modern (37mb PDF)
  This story features a crackingly devilish inversion of a hymn from the hymn book ‘Hymns Ancient and Modern’. You can read the original version in this PDF, hymn number 335.

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This week Will and Mike don their warmest Christmas jumpers for dinner with Dr James and the troubled incumbents of Medborough Abbey, in the company of Sheila Hodgson.

• What could be more seasonal than a cracker, eh?  Oh the fun that tumbles out when it goes snap! Paper hat, plastic keyring, lighthearted message of impending doom, that sort of thing. Indeed, Monty James felt a cracker could prompt a ghost story, “if the right people pull it, and if the motto which they find inside has the right message on it. They will probably leave the party early, pleading indisposition; but very likely a previous engagement of long standing would be the more truthful excuse.”  (Stories I have Tried to Write, 1929)
• Sheila Hodgson ran with this suggested plot device, setting her tale at the fictional Medborough Abbey.  The story appeared as a radio play, Ghosts and Scholars magazine and  ultimately in Fellow Travellers, a collection of her Jamesian tales published by Ash Tree Press in 1998. The same idea also inspired Andrew Caldecott to write ‘A Christmas Reunion’, the story we covered for our Christmas episode in 2017.
• Sheila was a script writer best known for her radio and TV dramas between the 1950 and 1980s, including thrillers, detective stories and then supernatural fiction.  Her first ghostly tales were adaptations of Algernon Blackwood’s ‘Dr John Silence: psychic detective’ stories for radio in the mid 1970s.  She subsequently wrote seven radio plays inspired by James, and the stories collected in Fellow Travellers.
• Alas there is no real Medborough Abbey in the UK, but the name may have been inspired by Medmenham Abbey in Berkshire, which was a 12th century Cistercian monastery until it was dissolved in 1547 and became a private residence. It is more notorious for being one of the haunts of Sir Francis Dashwood’s ‘Hellfire Club’ (but that is a whole other story).
• FACT: Will once dressed as Death and pursued me, Mike, around a ruined abbey, as part of a short film made by a friend.  Still gives me nightmares.

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This episode Mike and Will brace themselves for the ‘appalling stench of goat, cordite, sulphur, and burning human flesh’ in M.P. Dare’s The Demoniac Goat. Lovely!

Also in this episode we speak to actor Robert Lloyd Parry and publisher Brian J. Showers about ‘Ghosts of the Chit-chat’, their soon to be published new anthology of ghost stories from authors who, alongside M.R. James, were members of the Chit-Chat Club at Cambridge University. You can find out more about and order the book itself at the Swan River Press website. You can also visit Robert’s website for a upcoming schedule of live performances, both in theatres and online.

Show notes

• Marcus Paul Dare (The Haunted Library)
  Much of the biographical information we used on M.P. Dare came from the introduction to the Ash Tree Press edition of ‘Unholy Relics’ but also from this excellent article on The Haunted Library.
• Unholy Relics (Ash Tree Press @ Amazon.co.uk)
  This story was originally published in Dare’s ‘Unholy Relics’ collection in 1947. Nowadays the easiest way to get hold of it is via Ash Tree Press’s ebook, which contains an excellent introduction by Reg Meuross as well as extracts from Dare’s book ‘Indian Underworld’.
• Shadows of the Master by Mike Ashley (Ghosts & Scholars)
  The essay that drew M.P. Dare to our attention was ‘Shadows of the Master’ by Mike Ashley, which highlighted a number of authors who wrote stories in the Jamesian tradition.
• The Peak Cavern (peakcavern.co.uk)
  Better known by its nickname ‘The Devil’s Arse’, this cave near Castleton in Derbyshire could have provided inspiration for M.P. Dare when writing this story.
• The Eldon Hole (wondersofthepeak.org.uk)
  Similarly to the above, this famous crevasse on a hilltop near Castleton may have provided inspiration. Legends state that the Eldon Hole is bottomless, or that it leads straight down to hell!
• Offa of Mercia (Wikipedia)
  The silver coins found by the dastardly Reverend Ashley Tutor were said to be pennies from the reign of Offa, who ruled the Kingdom of Mercia in modern day England during the 8th century.
• Crockford’s Clerical Directory (crockford.org.uk)
  Since 1858 Crockford’s Clerical Directory as been the authoritative directory of the Anglican clergy. Previously it was a yearly publication, but can now be searched online.
• Cademan Wood (Google maps)
  Searches for ‘Cademan Tor’ will draw a blank, but the name ‘Cademan’ in most associated with this area in north west Leicestershire.
• Asmodeus (wikipedia)
  The titular goat in this story is named after this demon from Judeo-Islamic lore.
• Apollo and Lugh (wikipedia)
  The god supposedly represented on this altar in this story is a compound of these two Roman and Celtic deities.
• Osculum Infame (wikipedia)
  The ‘kiss of shame’ was an act believed by witch hunters to be carried out by witches upon meeting the devil!
• The Goat of Mendes (wikipedia)
  The “Goat of Mendes” was a term invented by French occultist Levi Eliphas in the 19th century, drawing on representations of half men/half goat devils and deities across the western world such as Pan, Baphomet and Mendes, a Greek god.

Finally, here’s the picture of M.P. Dare in his pants. Thankfully it is only small. The image I mean.

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