Season’s greetings listeners!

We have a Christmas bonus episode for you here, an exclusive readings of one of Charles Dickens’s supernatural Christmas tales ‘The Story of the Goblin who Stole a Sexton‘ which appeared as part of The Pickwick Papers in 1836.

For more information on Charles Dickens and M.R. James, check out Episode 41 in which we talk to M.R. James scholar Jane Mainley-Piddock.

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In this semi-Christmas episode, Mike and Will don their druid costumes and head down to rural Dorset for some pagan goings-on in ‘An Evening’s Entertainment‘ by M.R. James!

Big thanks to Paul Warren for providing the artwork to the right, titled ‘The Unsearchable Way (A Warning to the Curious)’. For more of Paul’s artwork visit Paul’s Website.

This episode also features readings from the talented Debbie Wedge. Thanks Debbie!

Show notes:

• An Evening’s Entertainment by Black Mass (Relic Radio)
  We have the Relic Radio podcast for resurrecting this classic 1964 radio version of this story. Hilariously over-the-top in places, and with some crazy accents. Check it out!
• Rosemary Pardoe story notes (Ghosts & Scholars)
  These G&S show notes were a great help when researching this story.
• “The Old Man on the Hill” – Beelzebub in “An Evening’s Entertainment” by Rosemary Pardoe (Ghosts & Scholars)
  Pardoe has also written a very interesting analysis of the appearance of ‘lord of flies’ in this story.
• Just How Wicked was that Wicked Young Man? – A Look at “An Evening’s Entertainment” by Tina Rath (Ghosts & Scholars)
  Another excellent Ghosts & Scholars essay which tried to work out what is going on in this story.
• ‘Lucy and Harry’ books by Maria Edgeworth (Google Books)
  An example of the style of 19th century educational children’s book that James is parodying in style in this story.
• Cerne Abbas Giant (Wikipedia)
  The most likely ‘Old man on the hill’ is the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset. Another (less priapic) possibility is the Long Man of Wilmington.
• Sun Cross (Wikipedia)
  The young man is found wearing a ‘little ornament like a wheel’, likely a sun cross.
• Lord of Flies (Wikipedia)
  The swarm of flies seen in this story is described by a local as ‘lord of flies’, a reference to the belief that beelzebub could manifest as a swarm of flies.

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It’s Christmas Special time again! This year Will & Mike look at the one and only M.R. James story actually set during the festive season, ‘The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance’.

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.

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