Ho ho, and indeed ho! In this special festive episode, Mike and Will pull on their wellies and wander straight into Lucky’s Grove by H.R. Wakefield. But who’s that hiding behind the Christmas tree?

Big thanks to Julia Morgan for allowing us to use extracts from her excellent Youtube reading of this story.

Show notes:

• The Clock Strikes Twelve (Ash Tree Press)
  If you want to read this story, your best bet is to pick up the Ash Tree Press ebook of The Clock Strikes Twelve, the H.R. Wakefield collection that contains this story.
• H.R. Wakefield (Wikipedia)
  You can read some biographical information about Wakefield himself on Wikipedia.
• The Edda (Wikipedia)
  The quote that starts this story is liberally adapted by Wakefield from part of these 11th-century Icelandic works.
• The Folk Horror of H.R. Wakefield (whenchuchyardsyawn)
  This excellent article by Jason Lineham analyses both Lucky’s Grove and another Wakefield tale called the The First Sheaf from a modern folk horror perspective.
• The Disney wolf (Wikipedia)
  The intimidating wolf that adorns one of the Christmas lights was presumably based on the wolf from the Disney short film Three Little Pigs (1933). He does look a bit intimidating actually!

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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. Burrage’s Christmas classic ‘Smee’!

Big thanks go to our reader this week Kirsty Woodfield.

Also mentioned in this episode were ‘The Dead Room’, 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, don’t forget to test your M.R. James knowledge with Monty’s 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 is to shell out for the ebook from 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 ‘Smee’ fits in to the wider tradition of Christmas ghost stories.
• A Game of Bear by M.R. James (Ghosts & Scholars)
  The framing of ‘Smee’ bears (ahem) similarities to an unfinished M.R. James story draft, which also makes reference to the hidden terrors lurking in party games that “entail stealthy creepings up and down staircases and along passages, and being leapt upon from doorways with loud and hideous cries.”
• Deadly Game or Hide and Seek (seeksghosts.blogspot.com)
  This blog post explored the ‘Mistletoe Bough’, 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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Ho ho ho! We have a festive cracker of an episode for you this month (literally), as Mike and Will explore Sir Andrew Caldecott’s M.R. James-inspired tale, ‘Christmas Re-union‘.

A big thank you to Tony Mears, who provided the readings for this episode. Check out his bands new track ‘A Hypothermia Banquet‘ on Bandcamp!

Story notes:

• ‘Christmas Re-union’ by Sir Andrew Caldecott (gutenberg.net.au)
  The collection in which this story appears can be read online at Project Gutenberg Australia.
• Sir Andrew Caldecott (wikipedia)
  Andrew Caldecott was a big cheese in the Colonial Office for much of this life, only starting to publish ghost stories after he retired. You can find out more about his career at britishempire.co.uk.
• Stories I Have Tried to Write by M.R. James (mrjamespodcast.com)
  Not familiar with the M.R. James essay from which Caldecott took his inspiration for this story? We put out a full reading of it back in 2011 which you can listen to online!
• Ghost story reviews: Not Exactly Ghosts (Tychy)
  An interesting review and commentary on the volume in which this story appears.
• Christmas Re-union (Anibalan.com)
  An essay on this story, and on Sir Andrew Caldecott in general.
• The Great Smog of London (wikipedia)
  The characters express a lot of concern about fog in this story. When you read about the Great Smog of December 1952 you will understand why!
• Sir Roger de Coverley (wikipedia)
  This famous country dance, mentioned in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, also makes an appearance in this story.

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