Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English author,
medievalist scholar and
provost of
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...
(1905–1918), and of
Eton College
Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...
(1918–1936). He was
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge (1913–15).
James's work as a medievalist and scholar is still highly regarded, but he is best remembered for his
ghost stories
A ghost story is any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them."Ghost Stories" in Margaret Drabble (ed.), ''Oxford Companion to English Literature''. ...
, which some consider among the best in the
genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
. He redefined the ghost story for the new century by abandoning many of the formal
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
cliché
A cliché ( or ) is an element of an artistic work, saying, or idea that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, even to the point of being weird or irritating, especially when at some earlier time it was consi ...
s of his predecessors and using more realistic contemporary settings. However, his protagonists and plots tend to reflect his own
antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...
interests. Accordingly, he is known as the originator of the "antiquarian ghost story".
[Briggs, Julia (1986). "James, M(ontague) R(hodes)". In Sullivan, Jack, ed., ''The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural''. New York: Viking Press. ]
Early life
James was born in a
clergy house
A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage.
Function
A clergy house is typically ow ...
in
Goodnestone, Dover
__NOTOC__
Goodnestone is a village and civil parish in the Dover district of Kent, England. The village is situated approximately east-southeast from the city of Canterbury, and west-southwest from Sandwich. The civil parish also contains the ...
,
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, England, although his parents had associations with
Aldeburgh
Aldeburgh ( ) is a coastal town in the English county, county of Suffolk, England. Located to the north of the River Alde. Its estimated population was 2,276 in 2019. It was home to the composer Benjamin Britten and remains the centre of the int ...
in
Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
. His father was Herbert James, an
Evangelical Anglican
Evangelical Anglicanism or evangelical Episcopalianism is a tradition or church party within Anglicanism that shares affinity with broader evangelicalism. Evangelical Anglicans share with other evangelicals the attributes of "conversionism, a ...
clergyman, and his mother, Mary Emily (''née'' Horton), was the daughter of a naval officer.
[ Cox, Michael (1987). "Introduction". ''Casting the Runes and Other Ghost Stories'' by M. R. James. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. xi–xxx. ] He had two older brothers, Sydney and Herbert (nicknamed "Ber"), and an older sister, Grace.
Sydney James later became
Archdeacon of Dudley The Archdeacon of Dudley is one of two archdeacons in the Anglican Diocese of Worcester, England (the other being the Archdeacon of Worcester).
History
The archdeaconry of Dudley was created by Order in Council on 11 February 1921 from the Worcest ...
. From the age of three (1865) until 1909 James's home, if not always his residence, was at the Rectory in
Great Livermere
Great Livermere is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. It is located around four miles north-east of the borough's largest town Bury St Edmunds.
Great Livermere also has a village hall located s ...
, Suffolk.
This had previously been the childhood home of another eminent Suffolk antiquary,
Thomas Martin of Palgrave
Thomas Martin (8 March 1696/7 – 7 March 1771), known as "Honest Tom Martin of Palgrave", was an antiquarian and lawyer.
Early life
Martin was born at Thetford in the school house of St. Mary's parish, which is the only parish of that town si ...
(1696–1771). Several of James's ghost stories are set in Suffolk, including
'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad'
"Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, included in his collection ''Ghost Stories of an Antiquary'' (1904). The story is named after a 1793 poem of the same name penned by Robert Burns.
Plo ...
(
Felixstowe
Felixstowe ( ) is a port town in Suffolk, England. The estimated population in 2017 was 24,521. The Port of Felixstowe is the largest container port in the United Kingdom. Felixstowe is approximately 116km (72 miles) northeast of London.
His ...
), "
A Warning to the Curious
"A Warning to the Curious" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, included in his book ''A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories'' first published in 1925. The tale tells the story of Paxton, an antiquarian and archaeologist who ...
" (Aldeburgh), "Rats" and "A Vignette" (Great Livermere).
In September 1873, he arrived as a boarder at
Temple Grove School
Temple Grove School was a preparatory school (United Kingdom), preparatory school for boys, and after 1984 also for girls, originally at Parsons Green, London, later at East Sheen, London, still later at Eastbourne, and finally at Heron's Ghyll, a ...
in
East Sheen
East Sheen, also known as Sheen, is a suburb in south-west London in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.
Its long high street has shops, offices, restaurants, cafés, pubs and suburban supermarkets and is also the economic hub for Mort ...
in west London, one of the leading boys' preparatory schools of the day.
[Jones, Darryl (2011). "Introduction". ''Collected Ghost Stories'' by M. R. James. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. xii. ]
From September 1876 to August 1882, he studied at
Eton College
Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...
,
[James, M. R. (1925). ''Eton and King's''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 13–97. ] where he claims to have translated the ''
Book of Baruch
The Book of Baruch is a deuterocanonical book of the Bible, used in most Christian traditions, such as Catholic and Orthodox churches. In Judaism and Protestant Christianity, it is considered not to be part of the canon, with the Protestant Bibl ...
'' from its original Ethiopic in 1879.
[James, M. R. (1925). ''Eton and King's''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 41–42; ] He lived for many years, first as an undergraduate (1882–1885),
[James, M. R. (1925). ''Eton and King's''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 106–195; ] then as a
don
Don, don or DON and variants may refer to:
Places
*County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON
*Don (river), a river in European Russia
*Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name
*Don, Benin, a town in Benin
*Don, Dang, a vill ...
and
provost, at
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...
, where he was also a member of the
Pitt Club
The University Pitt Club, popularly referred to as the Pitt Club, the UPC, or merely as Club, is a private members' club of the University of Cambridge, with a previously male-only membership but now open to both men and women.
History
The ...
.
The university provides settings for several of his tales. Apart from medieval subjects, James toured Europe often, including a memorable 1884 tour of France in a
Cheylesmore
Cheylesmore is a suburb in the southern half of the city of Coventry, West Midlands, England. It is one of Coventry's largest suburbs, sharing borders with Whitley and Stivichall (also spelt Styvechale) in the South, extending into Coventry ci ...
tricycle,
[James, M. R. (1925). ''Eton and King's''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 151–153; ] studied the classics and appeared very successfully in a staging of
Aristophanes
Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme
In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states ...
' play ''
The Birds'', with music by
Hubert Parry
Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet (27 February 18487 October 1918) was an English composer, teacher and historian of music. Born in Richmond Hill in Bournemouth, Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is b ...
. His ability as an actor was also apparent when he read his new ghost stories to friends at Christmas time.
Scholarly works
![Dead abbots Bury St Edmunds Abbey](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Dead_abbots_Bury_St_Edmunds_Abbey.jpg)
James is best known for his ghost stories, but his work as a medievalist scholar was prodigious and remains highly respected in scholarly circles. Indeed, the success of his stories was founded on his antiquarian talents and knowledge. His discovery of a manuscript fragment led to excavations in the ruins of the abbey at
Bury St Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...
, West Suffolk, in 1902, in which the graves of several twelfth-century abbots described by
Jocelyn de Brakelond
Jocelyn de Brakelond or ''Jocelin de Brakelonde'' ('' fl.'' latter half of 12th century) was an English monk and the author of a chronicle narrating the fortunes of the monastery of Bury St. Edmunds Abbey between 1173 and 1202. He is only known th ...
(a contemporary chronicler) were rediscovered, having been lost since the
Dissolution of the Monasteries.
He published a detailed description of the sculptured ceiling bosses of the cloisters of
Norwich Cathedral
Norwich Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Norwich, Norfolk, dedicated to the Holy and Undivided Trinity. It is the cathedral church for the Church of England Diocese of Norwich and is one of the Norwich 12 heritage sites.
The cathedral ...
in 1911. This included drawings of all the bosses in the north walk by C. J. W. Winter.
His 1917 edition of the Latin
hagiography
A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies migh ...
of
Æthelberht II of East Anglia
Æthelberht (Old English: ''Æðelbrihte'', ''ÆÞelberhte''), also called Saint Ethelbert the King (died 20 May 794 at Sutton Walls, Herefordshire), was an eighth-century saint and a king of East Anglia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today in ...
, king and martyr, remains authoritative.
He catalogued many of the manuscript libraries of the colleges of the
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
. Among his other scholarly works, he wrote ''The Apocalypse in Art'', which placed the
English Apocalypse manuscripts
Illustrated Apocalypse manuscripts are manuscripts that contain the text of Revelation or a commentary on Revelation and also illustrations. Most of these Apocalypses were written between 1250 and 1400. Careful, the English Apocalypses are part of ...
into families. He also translated the
New Testament apocrypha
The New Testament apocrypha (singular apocryphon) are a number of writings by early Christians that give accounts of Jesus and his teachings, the nature of God, or the teachings of his apostles and of their lives. Some of these writings were cit ...
and contributed to the ''
Encyclopaedia Biblica
''Encyclopaedia Biblica: A Critical Dictionary of the Literary, Political and Religion History, the Archeology, Geography and Natural History of the Bible'' (1899), edited by Thomas Kelly Cheyne and J. Sutherland Black, is a critical encyclopedia ...
'' (1903). His ability to wear his learning lightly is apparent in his ''Suffolk and Norfolk'' (Dent, 1930), in which a great deal of knowledge is presented in a popular and accessible form, and in ''Abbeys''.
He also achieved a great deal during his directorship of the
Fitzwilliam Museum
The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Vis ...
in Cambridge (1893–1908). He managed to secure a large number of important paintings and manuscripts, including notable portraits by
Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...
.
James was
Provost of
Eton College
Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...
from 1918 to 1936.
He was awarded the
Order of Merit
The Order of Merit (french: link=no, Ordre du Mérite) is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by K ...
in 1930. He died in 1936 (age 73) and was buried in
Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England.
Eton may also refer to:
Places
*Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England
* Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States
* Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...
town cemetery.
Ghost stories
![Whistle and I'll come to you illustration](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Whistle_and_I%27ll_come_to_you_illustration.jpg)
James's ghost stories were published in a series of collections: ''
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
''Ghost Stories of an Antiquary'' is a horror short story collection by British writer M. R. James, published in 1904 (some had previously appeared in magazines). Some later editions under this title contain both the original collection and its su ...
'' (1904), ''
More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
''More Ghost Stories'' is a horror short story collection by British writer M. R. James, published in 1911. Some later editions under the title ''Ghost Stories of an Antiquary'' contain it and the earlier ''Ghost Stories of an Antiquary'' in one ...
'' (1911), ''
A Thin Ghost and Others
''A Thin Ghost and Others'' is a horror short story collection by British writer M. R. James
Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English author, medievalist scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905 ...
'' (1919), and ''
A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories
''A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories'' is the title of M. R. James' fourth and final collection of ghost stories, published in 1925.
Montague Rhodes James (1862–1936) was a medievalist scholar; Provost of King's College, Cambri ...
'' (1925). The first hardback collected edition appeared in 1931. Many of the tales were written as Christmas Eve entertainments and read aloud to friends. This idea was used by the BBC in 2000 when they filmed
Christopher Lee
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a long career spanning more than 60 years, Lee often portrayed villains, and appeared as Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films, ultimat ...
reading James's stories in a candle-lit room in
King's College.
James perfected a method of story-telling which has since become known as Jamesian. The classic Jamesian tale usually includes the following elements:
# a characterful setting in an English village, seaside town or country estate; an ancient town in France, Denmark or Sweden; or a venerable abbey or university
# a nondescript and rather naive gentleman-scholar as protagonist (often of a reserved nature)
# the discovery of an old book or other antiquarian object that somehow unlocks, calls down the wrath, or at least attracts the unwelcome attention of a supernatural menace, usually from beyond the grave
According to James, the story must "put the reader into the position of saying to himself, 'If I'm not very careful, something of this kind may happen to me!'"
[James, M. R., "Preface to ''More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary'']
. In Joshi, S. T., ed. (2005). ''Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories: The Complete Ghost Stories of M. R. James, Volume 1'', pt. 217. Penguin Books. He also perfected the technique of narrating supernatural events through implication and suggestion, letting his reader fill in the blanks, and focusing on the mundane details of his settings and characters in order to throw the horrific and bizarre elements into greater relief. He summed up his approach in his foreword to the anthology ''Ghosts and Marvels'': "Two ingredients most valuable in the concocting of a ghost story are, to me, the atmosphere and the nicely managed crescendo. ... Let us, then, be introduced to the actors in a placid way; let us see them going about their ordinary business, undisturbed by forebodings, pleased with their surroundings; and into this calm environment let the ominous thing put out its head, unobtrusively at first, and then more insistently, until it holds the stage."
He also noted: "Another requisite, in my opinion, is that the ghost should be malevolent or odious: amiable and helpful apparitions are all very well in fairy tales or in local legends, but I have no use for them in a fictitious ghost story."
[
Despite his suggestion (in the essay "Stories I Have Tried to Write") that writers employ reticence in their work, many of James's tales depict scenes and images of savage and often disturbing violence. For example, in "Lost Hearts", pubescent children are taken in by a sinister dabbler in the occult who cuts their hearts from their still-living bodies. In a 1929 essay, James stated:
]
Reticence may be an elderly doctrine to preach, yet from the artistic point of view, I am sure it is a sound one. Reticence conduces to effect, blatancy ruins it, and there is much blatancy in a lot of recent stories. They drag in sex too, which is a fatal mistake; sex is tiresome enough in the novels; in a ghost story, or as the backbone of a ghost story, I have no patience with it. At the same time don't let us be mild and drab. Malevolence and terror, the glare of evil faces, 'the stony grin of unearthly malice', pursuing forms in darkness, and 'long-drawn, distant screams', are all in place, and so is a modicum of blood, shed with deliberation and carefully husbanded; the weltering and wallowing that I too often encounter merely recall the methods of M G Lewis.
Although not overtly sexual, plots of this nature have been perceived as unintentional metaphors of the Freudian
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts i ...
variety. James's biographer Michael Cox wrote in ''M. R. James: An Informal Portrait'' (1983), "One need not be a professional psychoanalyst to see the ghost stories as some release from feelings held in check." Reviewing this biography (''Daily Telegraph'', 1983), the novelist and diarist Anthony Powell
Anthony Dymoke Powell ( ; 21 December 1905 – 28 March 2000) was an English novelist best known for his 12-volume work ''A Dance to the Music of Time'', published between 1951 and 1975. It is on the list of longest novels in English.
Powell' ...
, who attended Eton under James's tutelage, commented that "I myself have heard it suggested that James's (of course platonic) love affairs were in fact fascinating to watch." Powell was referring to James's relationships with his pupils, not his peers.
Other critics have seen complex psychological undercurrents in James's work. His authorial revulsion from tactile contact with other people has been noted by Julia Briggs in ''Night Visitors: The Rise and Fall of the English Ghost Story'' (1977). As Nigel Kneale
Thomas Nigel Kneale (28 April 1922 – 29 October 2006) was a Manx screenwriter who wrote professionally for more than 50 years, was a winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, and was twice nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British S ...
wrote in the introduction to the Folio Society
The Folio Society is a London-based publisher, founded by Charles Ede in 1947 and incorporated in 1971. Formerly privately owned, it operates as an employee ownership trust since 2021.
It produces illustrated hardback editions of classic fict ...
edition of ''Ghost Stories of M. R. James'', "In an age where every man is his own psychologist, M. R. James looks like rich and promising material. ... There must have been times when it was hard to be Monty James." Or, to put it another way, "Although James conjures up strange beasts and supernatural manifestations, the shock effect of his stories is usually strongest when he is dealing in physical mutilation and abnormality, generally sketched in with the lightest of pens."
In addition to writing his own stories, James championed the works of Sheridan Le Fanu, whom he viewed as "absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories", editing and supplying introductions to ''Madame Crowl's Ghost'' (1923) and ''Uncle Silas'' (1926).
James's statements about his actual beliefs about ghosts are ambiguous. He wrote, "I answer that I am prepared to consider evidence and accept it if it satisfies me."
Views on literature and politics
James held strongly traditional views about literature. In addition to ghost stories, he also enjoyed reading the work of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
and the detective stories of Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...
.[Pfaff, Richard William (1980). ''Montague Rhodes James''. London: Scolar Press. p. 401.] He disliked most contemporary literature, strongly criticising the work of Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems.
Born into the prominent Huxley ...
, Lytton Strachey
Giles Lytton Strachey (; 1 March 1880 – 21 January 1932) was an English writer and critic. A founding member of the Bloomsbury Group and author of ''Eminent Victorians'', he established a new form of biography in which psychological insight ...
and James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
(whom he called "a charlatan" and "that prostitutor of life and language"). He also supported the banning of Radclyffe Hall
Marguerite Antonia Radclyffe Hall (12 August 1880 – 7 October 1943) was an English poet and author, best known for the novel ''The Well of Loneliness'', a groundbreaking work in lesbian literature. In adulthood, Hall often went by the name Jo ...
's 1928 novel about lesbianism
A lesbian is a homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with fema ...
, ''The Well of Loneliness
''The Well of Loneliness'' is a lesbian novel by British author Radclyffe Hall that was first published in 1928 by Jonathan Cape. It follows the life of Stephen Gordon, an Englishwoman from an upper-class family whose " sexual inversion" (homo ...
'', stating, "I believe Miss Hall's book is about birth control or some kindred subject, isn't it? I find it difficult to believe either that it is a good novel or that its suppression causes any loss to literature."
When he was a student at King's, James had opposed the appointment of Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist specialising in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
The storie ...
as Provost of Eton
Provost may refer to:
People
* Provost (name), a surname
Officials Government
* Provost (civil), an officer of local government, including the equivalent of a mayor in Scotland
* Lord provost, the equivalent of a lord mayor in Scotland
Militar ...
because of Huxley's agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...
; he later became Provost of Eton himself. In his later life James showed little interest in politics and rarely spoke on political issues. However, he often spoke out against the Irish Home Rule movement
The Irish Home Rule movement was a movement that campaigned for self-government (or "home rule") for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism from 1870 to the e ...
, and in his letters he also expressed a dislike for Communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
. His friend A. C. Benson considered him to be "reactionary", and "against modernity and progress".
Reception and influence
H. P. Lovecraft was an admirer of James's work, extolling the stories as the peak of the ghost story form in his essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature
"Supernatural Horror in Literature" is a 28,000 word essay by American writer H. P. Lovecraft, surveying the development and achievements of horror fiction as the field stood in the 1920s and 30s. The essay was researched and written between Nove ...
" (1927). Another renowned fan of James in the horror and fantasy genre was Clark Ashton Smith
Clark Ashton Smith (January 13, 1893 – August 14, 1961) was an American writer and artist. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional verse in the vein of Algernon Charles Swinburne ...
, who wrote an essay on him. Michael Sadleir
Michael Sadleir (25 December 1888 – 13 December 1957), born Michael Thomas Harvey Sadler, was a British publisher, novelist, book collector, and bibliographer.
Biography
Michael Sadleir was born in Oxford, England, the son of Sir Michael ...
described James as "the best ghost-story writer England has ever produced".[ Sadleir, Michael (1992). "Introduction". ''Collected Ghost Stories'' by M. R. James. Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions. ] Marjorie Bowen
Margaret Gabrielle Vere Long (née Campbell; 1 November 1885 – 23 December 1952), who used the pseudonyms Marjorie Bowen and Joseph Shearing, was a British author who wrote historical romances, supernatural horror stories, popular history and ...
also admired his work, referring to his ghost stories as "the supreme art of M. R. James". Mary Butts
Mary Francis Butts, (13 December 1890 – 5 March 1937) also Mary Rodker by marriage, was an English modernist writer. Her work found recognition in literary magazines such as '' The Bookman'' and ''The Little Review'', as well as from fellow mo ...
, another admirer, wrote the first critical essay on his work, "The Art of Montagu James", in the February 1934 issue of the ''London Mercury
''The London Mercury'' was the name of several periodicals published in London from the 17th to the 20th centuries. The earliest was a newspaper that appeared during the Exclusion Bill crisis; it lasted only 56 issues (1682). (Earlier periodicals ...
''. Manly Wade Wellman
Manly Wade Wellman (May 21, 1903 – April 5, 1986) was an American writer. While his science fiction and fantasy stories appeared in such pulps as ''Astounding Stories'', ''Startling Stories'', ''Unknown'' and ''Strange Stories'', Wellman is ...
esteemed his fiction. In ''The Great Railway Bazaar
''The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia'' is a travelogue by American novelist Paul Theroux, first published in 1975. It recounts Theroux's four-month journey by train in 1973 from London through Europe, the Middle East, the Indian sub ...
'', Paul Theroux
Paul Edward Theroux (born April 10, 1941) is an American novelist and travel writer who has written numerous books, including the travelogue, '' The Great Railway Bazaar'' (1975). Some of his works of fiction have been adapted as feature films. He ...
refers to "The Mezzotint
"The Mezzotint" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, included in his first collection ''Ghost Stories of an Antiquary'' (1904).
Plot summary
Mr. Williams, the curator of a university art museum (implied to be Oxford), receives a mezz ...
" as "the most frightening story I know". In his list "The 13 Most Terrifying Horror Stories", T. E. D. Klein
Theodore "Eibon" Donald Klein (born July 15, 1947) is an American horror writer and editor.
Klein has published very few works, but they have all achieved positive notice for their meticulous construction and subtle use of horror: critic S. T. ...
placed James's "Casting the Runes
"Casting the Runes" is a short story written by the English writer M.R. James. It was first published in 1911 as the fourth story in ''More Ghost Stories'', which was James' second collection of ghost story, ghost stories.
Plot summary
Mr. Edward ...
" at number one. E. F. Bleiler
Everett Franklin Bleiler (April 30, 1920 – June 13, 2010) was an American editor, bibliographer, and scholar of science fiction, detective fiction, and fantasy literature. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he co-edited the first "year's best" s ...
stated that James is "in the opinion of many, the foremost modern writer of supernatural fiction", and he described ''Ghost Stories of an Antiquary'' as "one of the landmark books in the history of supernatural fiction" and characterised the stories in James's other collections as "first-rate stories" and "excellent stories". Ruth Rendell
Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, (; 17 February 1930 – 2 May 2015) was an English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries.
Rendell is best known for creating Chief Inspector Wexford.The Oxford Companion ...
has also expressed admiration for James's work, stating, "There are some authors one wished one had never read in order to have the joy of reading them for the first time. For me, M. R. James is one of these." David Langford
David Rowland Langford (born 10 April 1953) is a British author, editor, and critic, largely active within the science fiction field. He publishes the science fiction fanzine and newsletter ''Ansible'', and holds the all-time record for most ...
has described James as the author of "the 20th century's most influential canon of ghost stories".[ Langford, David (1998). "James, Montague Rhodes". In Pringle, David, ed., ''St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost and Gothic Writers''. London: St. James Press. ]
Sir John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...
, in an introduction to Peter Haining's book about James, shows how influenced he was by James's work:
In the year 1920 I was a new boy at the Dragon school
("Reach for the Sun")
, established = 1877
, closed =
, type = Preparatory day and boarding school and Pre-Prep school
, religion = Church of England
, president =
, head_label = Head
, head = Emma Goldsm ...
, Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, then called Lynam's, of which the headmaster was C. C. Lynam, known as 'the Skipper'. He dressed and looked like an old Sea Salt, and in his gruff voice would tell us stories by firelight in the boys' room of an evening with all the lights out and his back to the fire. I remember he told the stories as having happened to himself. ... they were the best stories I ever heard, and gave me an interest in old churches, and country houses, and Scandinavia that not even the mighty Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales.
Andersen's fairy tales, consisti ...
eclipsed.
Betjeman later discovered the stories were all based on those of M. R. James.
H. Russell Wakefield
Herbert Russell Wakefield (1888 – 2 August 1964) was an English short-story writer, novelist, publisher, and civil servant chiefly remembered today for his ghost stories.
Life
Wakefield was the third of four children of the clergyman Henry Russ ...
's supernatural fiction was strongly influenced by the work of James. A large number of British writers deliberately wrote ghost stories in the Jamesian style; these writers, sometimes described as the "James Gang", include A. N. L. Munby
Alan Noel Latimer ('Tim') Munby (1913–1974) was an English author, writer and librarian.
Life and career
Born in Hampstead, Munby was educated at Clifton College and King's College, Cambridge. He is best known for his five-volume study of the e ...
, E. G. Swain, "Ingulphus" (pseudonym of Sir Arthur Gray, 1852–1940), Amyas Northcote
Amyas Northcote (1864–1923) was a British writer from an aristocratic family.
Family
Northcote was the youngest child and seventh son of Sir Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh (the Chancellor of the Exchequer under Disraeli) and his ...
and R. H. Malden
Richard Henry Malden, BD, (19 October 1879 – August 1951), Dean of Wells, was a prominent Anglican churchman, editor, classical and Biblical scholar, and a writer of ghost stories.
Career
Educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge ...
, although some commentators consider their stories to be inferior to those of James himself. Although most of the early Jamesian writers were male, there were several notable female writers of such fiction, including Eleanor Scott (pseudonym of Helen M. Leys, 1892–1965) in the stories of her book ''Randall's Round'' (1929)[Pardoe, Rosemary (2001). "The James Gang". ''Meddling with Ghosts: Stories in the Tradition of M. R. James''. London: ]British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
. pp. 267–87. and D. K. Broster
Dorothy Kathleen Broster (2 September 1877 – 7 February 1950), usually known as D. K. Broster, was an English novelist and short-story writer. Her fiction consists mainly of historical romances set in the 18th or early 19th centuries. Her best k ...
in the collection ''Couching at the Door: Strange and Macabre Tales'' (1942). L. T. C. Rolt
Lionel Thomas Caswall Rolt (usually abbreviated to Tom Rolt or L. T. C. Rolt) (11 February 1910 – 9 May 1974) was a prolific English writer and the biographer of major civil engineering figures including Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Thomas Te ...
also modelled his ghost stories on James's work, but, unlike other Jamesian writers, set them in industrial locations, such as mines and railways.
James's stories continue to influence many of today's great supernatural writers, including Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
(who discusses James in the 1981 non-fiction book ''Danse Macabre
The ''Danse Macabre'' (; ) (from the French language), also called the Dance of Death, is an artistic genre of allegory of the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death.
The ''Danse Macabre'' consists of the dead, or a personification of ...
'') and Ramsey Campbell
Ramsey Campbell (born 4 January 1946) is an English horror fiction writer, editor and critic who has been writing for well over fifty years. He is the author of over 30 novels and hundreds of short stories, many of them winners of literary awa ...
, who edited ''Meddling with Ghosts: Stories in the Tradition of M. R. James'' and wrote the short story "The Guide" in tribute. The author John Bellairs
John Anthony Bellairs (January 17, 1938 – March 8, 1991) was an American author best known for his fantasy novel ''The Face in the Frost'' and many Gothic mystery novels for children featuring the characters Lewis Barnavelt, Rose Rita Pottin ...
paid homage to James by incorporating plot elements borrowed from James's ghost stories into several of his own juvenile mysteries. Several of Jonathan Aycliffe
Denis M. MacEoin (26 January 1949 – 6 June 2022) was a British academic, scholar and writer with a focus on Persian, Arabic and Islamic studies. He authored several academic books and articles, as well as many pieces of journalism. Since 2014 ...
's novels, including ''Whispers in the Dark'' and ''The Matrix'' are influenced by James's work. Aycliffe/MacEoin studied for his PhD in Persian Studies at King's College, Cambridge. This makes three King's College authors of ghost stories (James, Munby and Aycliffe).
Works inspired by James
The composer Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (born Leon Dudley Sorabji; 14 August 1892 – 15 October 1988) was an English composer, music critic, pianist and writer whose music, written over a period of seventy years, ranges from sets of miniatures to wor ...
wrote two pieces for piano with a link to James: ''Quaere reliqua hujus materiei inter secretiora'' (1940), inspired by "Count Magnus", and ''St. Bertrand de Comminges: "He was laughing in the tower"'' (1941), inspired by "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book".
H. Russell Wakefield's story "He Cometh and He Passeth By!" (1928) is a homage to James's "Casting the Runes".
W. F. Harvey's ghost story "The Ankardyne Pew" (1928) is also a homage to James's work, which Harvey admired.
Gerald Heard
Henry FitzGerald Heard (6 October 1889 – 14 August 1971), commonly called Gerald Heard, was a British-born American historian, science writer, public lecturer, educator, and philosopher. He wrote many articles and over 35 books.
Heard was a g ...
's novel ''The Black Fox'' is an occult thriller inspired by "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral".
Kingsley Amis
Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social an ...
' novel '' The Green Man'' is partly a homage to James's ghost stories.
Between 1976 and 1992, Sheila Hodgson authored and produced for BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
a series of plays which portrayed M. R. James as the diarist of a series of fictional ghost stories, mainly inspired by fragments referred to in his essay "Stories I Have Tried to Write". These consisted of ''Whisper in the Ear'' (October 1976), ''Turn, Turn, Turn'' (March 1977), ''The Backward Glance'' (22 September 1977), ''Here Am I, Where Are You?'' (29 December 1977), ''Echoes from the Abbey'' (21 November 1984), ''The Lodestone'' (19 April 1989), and ''The Boat Hook'' (15 April 1992). David March appeared as James in all but the final two, which starred Michael Williams. Raidió Teilifís Éireann
Raidi (; ; also written Ragdi; born August, 1938) is a Tibetan politician of the People's Republic of China. He served as a vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress from 2003 to 2008, and the highest ranking Tibeta ...
also broadcast ''The Fellow Travellers'', with Aiden Grennell as James, on 20 February 1994. All the stories later appeared in Hodgson's collection ''The Fellow Travellers and Other Ghost Stories'' (Ash-Tree Press
Ash-Tree Press is a Canadian company that publishes supernatural and horror literature.
The press has reprinted notable collections of ghostly stories by such writers as R. H. Malden, A. N. L. Munby, L. T. C. Rolt, Margery Lawrence, and Elea ...
, 1998).
On Christmas Day 1987, ''The Teeth of Abbot Thomas'', a James parody by Stephen Sheridan, was broadcast on Radio 4. It starred Alfred Marks
Alfred Edward Marks OBE (born Alfred Edward Touchinsky; 28 January 19211 July 1996) was a British actor and comedian. In his 60-year career, he played dramatic and comedy roles in numerous television programmes, stage shows and films. His self- ...
(as Abbot Thomas), Robert Bathurst
Robert Guy Bathurst (born 22 February 1957) is an English actor. Bathurst was born in The Gold Coast (now Ghana) in 1957, where his father was working as a management consultant. In 1959 his family moved to Ballybrack, Dublin, Ireland and Bath ...
, Denise Coffey
Denise Dorothy Coffey (12 December 1936 – 24 March 2022) was an English actress, director and playwright.
Early life
Coffey was born in Aldershot in 1936, the only child of Dorothy (''née'' Malcolm), and her husband, Denis Coffey, an Irishm ...
, Jonathan Adams and Bill Wallis
William Wallis (20 November 1936 – 6 September 2013) was a British character actor and comedian who appeared in numerous radio and television roles, as well as in the theatre.
Biography
Wallis was born in Guildford in Surrey, the only son of A ...
.
In 1989, Ramsey Campbell
Ramsey Campbell (born 4 January 1946) is an English horror fiction writer, editor and critic who has been writing for well over fifty years. He is the author of over 30 novels and hundreds of short stories, many of them winners of literary awa ...
published the short story "The Guide", which takes an antiquarian on a macabre journey to a ruined church after following marginalia in a copy of James's guidebook ''Suffolk and Norfolk''. In 2001, Campbell edited the anthology ''Meddling with Ghosts: Stories in the Tradition of M. R. James''.
The novelist James Hynes
James Hynes (born August 23, 1955) is an American novelist.
Biography
Hynes was born in Okemos, Michigan,''Contemporary Authors Online'', Thomson Gale, 2004. and grew up in Big Rapids, Michigan. He currently resides in Austin, Texas, where he ...
wrote an updated version of "Casting the Runes" in his 1997 story collection '' Publish and Perish''.
In 2003, Radio 4 broadcast ''The House at World's End'' by Stephen Sheridan. A pastiche of James's work, it contained numerous echoes of his stories while offering a fictional account of how he became interested in the supernatural. The older James was played by John Rowe, and the younger James by Jonathan Keeble.
Chris Priestley's ''Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror'' (2007) is a volume of ghost stories influenced by James in mood, atmosphere and subject matter, as the title suggests.
In 2008 the English experimental neofolk
Neofolk, also known as apocalyptic folk, is a form of experimental music blending elements of folk and industrial music, which emerged in punk rock circles in the 1980s. Neofolk may either be solely acoustic or combine acoustic folk instrumenta ...
duo The Triple Tree, featuring Tony Wakeford
Anthony Charles "Tony" Wakeford (born 2 May 1959) is an English neofolk and neoclassical musician, who primarily records under the name Sol Invictus.
Wakeford lives in London and is married to Sol Invictus violinist Renée Rosen.
Musical wor ...
and Andrew King from Sol Invictus
Sol Invictus (, "Unconquered Sun"), sometimes simply known as Helios, was long considered to be the official sun god of the later Roman Empire. In recent years, however, the scholarly community has become divided on Sol between traditionalists a ...
, released the album ''Ghosts'' on which all but three songs were based upon the stories of James. One of the songs, "Three Crowns" (based on the short story "A Warning to the Curious"), also appeared on the compilation album ''John Barleycorn Reborn'' (2007).
In February 2012, the UK psychedelic
Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of ...
band The Future Kings of England released their 4th album, ''Who Is This Who Is Coming'', based on James's 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad'
"Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, included in his collection ''Ghost Stories of an Antiquary'' (1904). The story is named after a 1793 poem of the same name penned by Robert Burns.
Plo ...
. An instrumental work, it evokes the story from beginning to end, with the tracks segueing into one another to form a continuous piece of music.
On 23 February 2012 the Royal Mail
, kw, Postya Riel, ga, An Post Ríoga
, logo = Royal Mail.svg
, logo_size = 250px
, type = Public limited company
, traded_as =
, foundation =
, founder = Henry VIII
, location = London, England, UK
, key_people = * Keith Williams ...
released a stamp featuring James as part its "Britons of Distinction" series.
In 2013, the Fan Museum
The Fan Museum, which opened in 1991, is the world's first museum dedicated to the preservation and display of hand fans. It is located within two grade II* listed houses that were built in 1721 within the Greenwich World Heritage Site in southe ...
in London hosted two performances of ''The Laws of Shadows'', a play by Adrian Drew about M. R. James. The play is set in James's rooms at Cambridge University and deals with his relationships with his colleague E. F. Benson
Edward Frederic Benson (24 July 1867 – 29 February 1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist and short story writer.
Early life
E.F. Benson was born at Wellington College (Berkshire), Wellington College in Berkshir ...
and the young artist James McBryde.
On 9 January 2019, in the third episode of the seventh series of the BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
programme ''Father Brown
Father Brown is a fictional Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective who is featured in 53 short stories published between 1910 and 1936 written by English author G. K. Chesterton. Father Brown solves mysteries and crimes using his intuiti ...
'', titled "The Whistle in the Dark", the character Professor Robert Wiseman reads a collection of ghost stories by M. R. James and later suggests that the whistle in his possession in the one described in James's Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad.
Comedian and writer John Finnemore
John David Finnemore (born 28 September 1977) is a British comedy writer and actor. He wrote and performed in the radio series ''Cabin Pressure'', ''John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme'', and '' John Finnemore's Double Acts'', and frequently ...
is a fan of the ghost stories of M. R. James. His radio sketch series ''John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme
''John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme'' is a sketch comedy series broadcast on BBC Radio 4. John Finnemore is the sole writer and performs with Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Simon Kane, Lawry Lewin and Carrie Quinlan. The first series was broadcas ...
'', first broadcast in 2011, features the recurring character of a storyteller (a fictionalised version of Finnemore) who tells tall tales partly influenced by M. R. James's ghost stories. During the ninth series broadcast in 2021, which underwent a format change due to the coronavirus pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
, Oswald 'Uncle Newt' Nightingale, analogous with Finnemore's storyteller character, meets M. R. James during the Christmas of 1898 as a young boy, who proceeds to tell him the story of ''The Rose Garden''. Later in Uncle Newt's life (or earlier in the series), he tells an iteration of said story whilst babysitting Deborah and Myra Wilkinson.
In 2022, British post punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...
band Funboy Five released "Kissing the Ghost of M R James" and "A Warning to the Curious (Disturbed Mix)", a remix of a song, based on the James story, that first appeared on their 2019 release ''An Autumn Collection
An, AN, aN, or an may refer to:
Businesses and organizations
* Airlinair (IATA airline code AN)
* Alleanza Nazionale, a former political party in Italy
* AnimeNEXT, an annual anime convention located in New Jersey
* Anime North, a Canadian an ...
''.
Adaptations
Television
There have been numerous television adaptations of James's stories. The very first TV adaptation was American—a 1951 version of "The Tractate Middoth
"The Tractate Middoth" is a short ghost story by British author M. R. James. It was published in 1911 in '' More Ghost Stories'', James's second collection of ghost stories.
Plot
Mr. Garrett, an employee of a university library, searches for ...
" in the '' Lights Out'' series, called "The Lost Will of Dr Rant" and featuring Leslie Nielsen
Leslie William Nielsen (11 February 192628 November 2010) was a Canadian actor and comedian. With a career spanning 60 years, he appeared in more than 100 films and 150 television programs, portraying more than 220 characters.
Nielsen was bo ...
. It is available on several DVDs, including an Alpha Video release alongside Gore Vidal's ''Climax!
''Climax!'' (later known as ''Climax Mystery Theater'') is an American television anthology series that aired on CBS from 1954 to 1958. The series was hosted by William Lundigan and later co-hosted by Mary Costa. It was one of the few CBS programs ...
'' adaptation of ''Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde
''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'' is a 1886 Gothic novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It follows Gabriel John Utterson, a London-based legal practitioner who investigates a series of strange occurrences between his old ...
'', starring Michael Rennie
Michael Rennie (born Eric Alexander Rennie; 25 August 1909 – 10 June 1971) was a British film, television and stage actor, who had leading roles in a number of Hollywood films, including his portrayal of the space visitor Klaatu in the s ...
.
The majority of television adaptations of James's works have been made in Britain. The best-known adaptations include ''Whistle and I'll Come to You
"Whistle and I'll Come to You" is a 1968 BBC television drama adaptation of the 1904 ghost story 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad' by M. R. James. It tells of an eccentric and distracted professor who happens upon a strange whistle whi ...
'' (1968, directed by Jonathan Miller
Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller CBE (21 July 1934 – 27 November 2019) was an English theatre and opera director, actor, author, television presenter, humourist and physician. After training in medicine and specialising in neurology in the late 19 ...
) and ''A Warning to the Curious
"A Warning to the Curious" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, included in his book ''A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories'' first published in 1925. The tale tells the story of Paxton, an antiquarian and archaeologist who ...
'' (1972; directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark
Lawrence Gordon Clark, is an English television director and producer, perhaps best known for his ''A Ghost Story for Christmas'' series of mostly M. R. James ghost stories, which were broadcast annually by the BBC throughout the 1970s.
These ar ...
), starring Michael Hordern
Sir Michael Murray Hordern CBE (3 October 19112 May 1995)Morley, Sheridan"Hordern, Michael Murray (1911–1995)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition, May 2009, accessed 22 July 2015 was ...
and Peter Vaughan
Peter Vaughan (born Peter Ewart Ohm; 4 April 1923 – 6 December 2016) was an English character actor known for many supporting roles in British film and television productions. He also acted extensively on the stage.
He is perhaps best known ...
respectively. The latter was part of an annual BBC series titled ''A Ghost Story for Christmas
''A Ghost Story for Christmas'' is a strand of annual British short television films originally broadcast on BBC One between 1971 and 1978, and revived sporadically by the BBC since 2005. With one exception, the original instalments were directe ...
'', which would ultimately produce five dramatizations of James's stories in the 1970s: ''The Stalls of Barchester'' (1971), ''A Warning to the Curious'' (1972), ''Lost Hearts'' (1973), ''The Treasure of Abbot Thomas'' (1974) and ''The Ash-tree'' (1975).
Although ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
produced four black-and-white adaptations of James's ghost stories between 1966 and 1968, no surviving copies are known to exist. However, a short preview trailer featuring several scenes from the 1968 adaptation of "Casting the Runes" survived and has been shown at cult film festivals. The trailer is also available on Network DVD's ''Mystery and Imagination'' DVD set. "Casting the Runes" was again adapted for television in 1979 as an episode of the ''ITV Playhouse'' series with Lawrence Gordon Clark directing and starring Jan Francis
Janet Stephanie Francis (born 5 August 1947) is an English actress. She appeared as Penny Warrender in the 1980s romantic comedy ''Just Good Friends''.
Early life
Francis was born at the former Charing Cross Hospital London. She is the eldes ...
as the lead protagonist (a man in previous adaptations). It has been released by Network DVD which also includes a 20-minute adaptation of "Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance" (made in 1976 by Yorkshire Television as part of the ''Music Scene'' ITV Schools programme) and ''A Pleasant Terror'', a 1995 ITV documentary about James.
In 1980, the BBC produced a series, aimed at older children, of readings of classic horror stories read by various actors entitled ''Spine Chillers
''Spine Chillers'' was the name of two separate supernatural television series, broadcast on the BBC.
1980s series
''Spine Chillers'' was a 1980 British children's supernatural television series produced by the Jackanory team and broadcast on BBC ...
''. This included readings of James's stories "The Mezzotint", "The Diary of Mr Poynter" and "A School Story", all read by Michael Bryant. In December 1986, BBC2
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
broadcast partially dramatized readings by the actor Robert Powell
Robert Powell (; born 1 June 1944) is an English actor who is known for the title roles in ''Mahler'' (1974) and '' Jesus of Nazareth'' (1977), and for his portrayal of secret agent Richard Hannay in '' The Thirty Nine Steps'' (1978) and its ...
of "The Mezzotint", "The Ash-Tree", "Wailing Well", Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad and "The Rose Garden". In a similar vein, the BBC also produced a short series (''M. R. James' Ghost Stories for Christmas'') of further readings in 2000, which featured Christopher Lee
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a long career spanning more than 60 years, Lee often portrayed villains, and appeared as Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films, ultimat ...
as James, who (in character) read 30-minute adaptations of "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral", "The Ash-tree", "Number 13" and "A Warning to the Curious".
The ''Ghost Story for Christmas'' strand was revived in December 2005, when BBC Four
BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002 broadcast a new version of James's story "A View from a Hill", with "Number 13" following in December 2006. These were broadly faithful to the originals and were well received. A new version of ''Whistle and I'll Come to You'', starring John Hurt
Sir John Vincent Hurt (22 January 1940 – 25 January 2017) was an English actor whose career spanned over five decades. Hurt was regarded as one of Britain's finest actors. Director David Lynch described him as "simply the greatest actor in t ...
, was broadcast by BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
on Christmas Eve 2010.
Ten of the BBC productions made between 1968 and 2010 (including three episodes of the Christopher Lee readings series) were released on DVD in October 2011 as a five-disc boxed set in Australia by Shock DVD, as ''The Complete Ghost Stories of M. R. James''. A boxed set of the BBC's ''Ghost Stories For Christmas'' productions, including all of the M. R. James adaptations, was released in Britain in 2012, and an expanded six-disc set (including Robert Powell's series of readings from 1986, and readings from the BBC's 1980 ''Spine Chillers'' series for children) was released in 2013.
A new adaptation of "The Tractate Middoth", the directorial debut of Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss (; born 17 October 1966) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, director, producer and novelist. His work includes writing for and acting in the television series ''Doctor Who'', '' Sherlock'', and '' Dracula''. Together with ...
, was broadcast on BBC Two on 25 December 2013. Gatiss also presented a new documentary, entitled ''M. R. James: Ghost Writer'', which was screened directly afterwards; it featured scenes from the BBC television adaptations, along with Robert Lloyd Parry of the Nunkie Theatre Company performing as M. R. James himself and reading excerpts from his stories.
On 31 October 2014, the BBC daytime soap opera ''Doctors
Doctor or The Doctor may refer to:
Personal titles
* Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree
* A medical practitioner, including:
** Physician
** Surgeon
** Dentist
** Veterinary physician
** Optometrist
*Other roles
** ...
'' presented an adaptation of Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad with Dr Al Haskey (played by Ian Midlane
Ian Midlane (born 2 February 1976) is an English actor, known for portraying the role of Al Haskey on the BBC soap opera '' Doctors''. For his performance as Al, he won the award for Best Comedy Performance at the 2018 British Soap Awards.
Ca ...
) substituted for Professor Parkins. "Whistle..." was written by Jeremy Hylton Davies and directed by Pip Short. The BBC website also produced a behind-the-scenes video of the production.
On Christmas Eve 2019, the BBC broadcast an adaptation of "Martin's Close", written and directed by Mark Gatiss, and starring Peter Capaldi
Peter Dougan Capaldi (; born 14 April 1958) is a Scottish actor, director, writer and musician. He portrayed the Twelfth Doctor, twelfth incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in ''Doctor Who'' (2013–2017) and Malcolm Tucker in ' ...
. It became BBC Four's "most watched programme of 2019", with 1.5 million viewers.
In February 2021, the BBC announced another Christmas Gatiss adaptation: "The Mezzotint", now promoted to appear on BBC Two.
On 23 December 2022, continuing with the Gatiss Christmas ghost story adaptations, the BBC showed "Count Magnus
"Count Magnus" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, first published in 1904. It was included in his first collection ''Ghost Stories of an Antiquary''.
Plot
A traveller in Sweden stumbles upon the history of a mysterious and ominou ...
" on BBC Two.
Radio
1932 – The first broadcast of an M. R. James story was made on 27 October 1932 (four years before his death) during a Bach piano concert transmitted by the BBC Midlands Regional Programme. During the 20-minute interval, "A School Story" was read "from the studio" by Vincent Curran.
1938 – On 12 March, the BBC's London Regional Programme broadcast an adaptation of "Martin's Close" under the title ''Madam, Will You Walk?'' The 40-minute play was written by C. Whitaker-Wilson and produced by John Cheatle. The ''Radio Times
''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...
'' printed the musical notation for the ghostly refrain and noted, "You will have had quite enough of that tune before the play has ended. You will hear it played by a string quartet... you will hear it sung by Judge Jeffries in court (an actual fact); and, worse still, you will hear it floating on a gale of wind, sung by a murdered girl near a lonely inn in a Devonshire village. That also is a fact."
1940 – The BBC broadcast a second version of "Martin's Close" on 4 April, this time as a 25-minute reading by John Gloag
John Gloag (10 August 1896 - 17 July 1981) was an English writer in the fields of furniture design and architecture.
Gloag also wrote science fiction novels. Gloag served with the Welsh Guards during the First World War, and was invalided home af ...
for the new Home Service
Home Service is a British folk rock group, formed in late 1980 from a nucleus of musicians who had been playing in Ashley Hutchings' Albion Band. Their career is generally agreed to have peaked with the album ''Alright Jack'', and has had an ...
.
1946 – World War II had done nothing to dampen the BBC's enthusiasm for "Martin's Close", and on 13 February, C. Whitaker-Wilson's 1938 script of ''Madam, Will You Walk?'' was remounted, this time produced by Noel Iliff. Whitaker-Wilson himself played the part of Judge Jeffreys
George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys, PC (15 May 1645 – 18 April 1689), also known as "the Hanging Judge", was a Welsh judge. He became notable during the reign of King James II, rising to the position of Lord Chancellor (and serving as ...
in a 45-minute production for the BBC Home Service.
The same year, the anthology series ''Stories Old and New'' featured David Lloyd James reading a 20-minute version of "Lost Hearts" for the BBC Home Service on 16 September.
1947 – The BBC's ''Wednesday Matinee'' strand presented a version of "The Mezzotint", adapted by Ashley Sampson, with Martin Lewis as Dennistoun. The play was produced by John Richmond and transmitted on 21 May as the second half of a double bill, in an "approximate" 25-minute slot on the Home Service.
On 19 November, the fifteenth episode of the CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
radio series ''Escape
Escape or Escaping may refer to:
Computing
* Escape character, in computing and telecommunication, a character which signifies that what follows takes an alternative interpretation
** Escape sequence, a series of characters used to trigger some so ...
'' was an adaptation of "Casting the Runes".
1949 – Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad became the second instalment of the new '' Man in Black'' series, arranged for radio by John Keir Cross. George Owen played Professor Parkins, Charles Lefeaux was Colonel Wilson, while Valentine Dyall
Valentine Dyall (7 May 1908 – 24 June 1985) was an English character actor. He worked regularly as a voice actor, and was known for many years as "The Man in Black", the narrator of the BBC Radio horror series '' Appointment with Fear'' ...
starred as the eponymous host. The 30-minute play was transmitted on 7 February on the BBC Light Programme
The BBC Light Programme was a national radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and light music from 1945 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 1. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the ...
and repeated on the Home Service on 6 April.
On 16 June the Home Service broadcast a 15-minute reading of "Rats" performed by Anthony Jacobs.
1951 – On 21 April, ''Saturday Matinee'' presented a version of "Casting the Runes" for the BBC Home Service. Roger Delgado
Roger Caesar Marius Bernard de Delgado Torres Castillo Roberto (1 March 1918 – 18 June 1973) was a British actor. He played many roles on television, radio and in films, and had "a long history of playing minor villains" before becoming ...
appeared as Harrington, Derek Birch played Dunning and Australian actor Dodd Mehan starred as Karswell. The play was adapted by Simona Pakenham and produced by Leonarde Chase.
1952 – "The Uncommon Prayer Book" was dramatised by Michael Gambier-Parry for the regional BBC Home Service West. Broadcast on 24 April, the play was billed as a "ghost story for St. Mark's Eve" ("The prayer books, though repeatedly closed, are always found open at a particular psalm... above the text of this particular psalm is a quite unauthorised rubric 'For the 25th Day of April".) The 60-minute play was produced by Owen Reed and starred George Holloway as Henry Davidson. It was repeated on 26 November on BBC Home Service Basic as part of the ''Wednesday Matinee'' strand.
1954 – On 10 December, BBC Home Service Midland broadcast a version of "A Warning to the Curious", adapted by documentary maker Philip Donnellan
Philip Donnellan (9 February 1924 – 15 February 1999) was an English documentary film-maker.
Described in his ''Guardian'' obituary as "one of the greatest of all documentarists", Donnellan worked with the BBC for over four decades, producing ar ...
.
1957 – The association between M. R. James and the festive period began on Christmas Day 1957 as ''Lost Hearts'' was read by Hugh Burden
Hugh Archibald Nairn Burden''The Daily Telegraph'', 25 July 1962 (3 April 1913 – 16 May 1985) was a British actor and playwright.
Hugh Archibald Nairn Burden was the eldest son of Harry Archibald Burden, a colonial official, and Caro Cecil n ...
on the BBC Third Programme
The BBC Third Programme was a national radio station produced and broadcast from 1946 until 1967, when it was replaced by Radio 3. It first went on the air on 29 September 1946 and quickly became one of the leading cultural and intellectual f ...
.
1959 – "The Tractate Middoth" was adapted as ''A Mass of Cobwebs'' by Brian Batchelor for the BBC's ''Thirty-Minute Theatre''. It was produced by Robin Midgley
Robin Midgley (10 November 1934 – 19 May 2007) was a director in theatre, television and radio and responsible for some of the earliest episodes of ''Z-Cars'' and for the television version of the Royal Shakespeare Company's ''Wars of the Roses ...
and starred Peter Howell as William Garrett, with Edgar Norfolk
Edgar Norfolk (5 November 1893 – 1980) was a British actor.
Norfolk was born Edgar Greenwood. He was the first husband of the actress Helen Saintsbury (a daughter of the actor H.A. Saintsbury); her second husband, Captain Buckley Rutherford, a ...
as Eldred. It was first broadcast on the Light Programme on 28 April 1959 and received its first repeat 59 years later on 27 August 2018 on BBC Radio 4 Extra
BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British digital radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a day. It is the sister station of BBC Radio 4 and the p ...
.
1963 – Charles Lefeaux had acted in the 1949 production of Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad, and fourteen years later he would produce three M. R. James adaptations of his own. The first of these was "The Diary of Mr. Poynter", an entry in the ''Mystery Playhouse'' strand for the Home Service. ("My hair! Give me back my hair! Give me back my beautiful brown hair" teased the Radio Times.) The 15-minute play was again adapted by Philip Donnellan and starred Marius Goring as Denton.
Lefeaux's second production was a new version of "Martin's Close", this time adapted by Michael
Michael may refer to:
People
* Michael (given name), a given name
* Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael
Given name "Michael"
* Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...
and Mollie Hardwick
Mollie Greenhalgh Hardwick (7 March 1916 in Prestwich, Lancashire – 13 December 2003), also known as Mary Atkinson, was an English author who was best known for writing books that accompanied the TV series '' Upstairs, Downstairs''.
Hardwi ...
, again for ''Mystery Playhouse'' and the Home Service. The 30-minute piece starred Donald Wolfit
Sir Donald Wolfit, KBE (born Donald Woolfitt; Harwood, Ronald"Wolfit, Sir Donald (1902–1968)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, January 2008; accessed 14 July 2009 20 April 1902 ...
as Judge Jeffreys and was transmitted on 20 August 1963. ("What see you in the corner of the Court, that you fix your eyes on it and not on me, your Judge?" teased the Radio Times again.) The play was repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra on 26 February 2018.
On 18 December 1963, "The Ash Tree" was dramatised for ''The Black Mass
''The Black Mass'' was a horror-fantasy radio drama produced by Erik Bauersfeld, a leading American radio dramatist of the post-television era. The series aired on KPFA (Berkeley) and KPFK (Los Angeles) from 1963 to 1967, on an irregular schedu ...
'', an American anthology series broadcast on KPFA
KPFA (94.1 FM) is an American listener-funded talk radio and music radio station located in Berkeley, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area. KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming. The station sign ...
(Berkeley) and KPFK
KPFK (90.7 FM) is a listener-sponsored radio station based in North Hollywood, California, United States, which serves Southern California, and also streams 24 hours a day via the Internet. It was the second of five stations in the non-commerci ...
(Los Angeles). The series was produced by Eric Bauersfeld.
The final installment of Lefeaux's M. R. James trilogy came on Christmas Eve with another version of Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad. ("Easy enough to whistle – but there's no telling what will answer.") Again adapted by Michael and Mollie Hardwick, and again broadcast on the Home Service, the production is notable for the casting of Michael Hordern
Sir Michael Murray Hordern CBE (3 October 19112 May 1995)Morley, Sheridan"Hordern, Michael Murray (1911–1995)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition, May 2009, accessed 22 July 2015 was ...
as Parkins – a role he would reprise for Jonathan Miller's TV adaptation five years later. The 30-minute play was repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra on New Year's Day, 2018.
Sound effects for "Martin's Close" and Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad were provided by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
The BBC Radiophonic Workshop was one of the sound effects units of the BBC, created in 1958 to produce incidental sounds and new music for radio and, later, television. The unit is known for its experimental and pioneering work in electroni ...
, and the original sound-effects reel was preserved in their archive.
1964 – Eric Bauersfeld's ''The Black Mass'' broadcast a second M. R. James adaptation, with "An Evening's Entertainment" airing on Hallowe'en Night.
1965 – A supernaturally-themed edition of ''Story Time'' aired on the Home Service on 23 March. A number of performers read from "stories in prose and verse", including Scottish ballads and James's "Wailing Well".
1968 – Three years later, ''Story Time'' presented five M. R. James stories read by Howieson Culff. The 30-minute episodes were produced by David Davis and broadcast weekly on BBC Radio 4 FM between 20 August and 17 September. Episodes were "The Mezzotint", "The Rose Garden", "The Haunted Dolls' House", "The Uncommon Prayer-Book" and "A Neighbour's Landmark". Selected episodes were repeated as ''Three Ghost Stories'' the following year.
1971 – Radio 3's ''Study on 3'' presented a four-part analysis of ''The Horror Story''. The second episode ("Ghosts") was transmitted on 23 December 1971 – the day before the first ''Ghost Story for Christmas'' aired on BBC1 – and featured a discussion with Jonathan Miller
Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller CBE (21 July 1934 – 27 November 2019) was an English theatre and opera director, actor, author, television presenter, humourist and physician. After training in medicine and specialising in neurology in the late 19 ...
and a reading of "Lost Hearts" by Bernard Cribbins
Bernard Joseph Cribbins (29 December 1928 – 27 July 2022) was an English actor and singer whose career spanned over seven decades.
During the 1960s, Cribbins became known in the UK for his successful novelty records " The Hole in the Groun ...
. The series was repeated the following year.
1974 – On 12 January, the ''CBS Radio Mystery Theater
''CBS Radio Mystery Theater'' (a.k.a. ''Radio Mystery Theater'' and ''Mystery Theater'', sometimes abbreviated as ''CBSRMT'') is a radio drama series created by Himan Brown that was broadcast on CBS Radio Network affiliates from 1974 to 1982, an ...
'', hosted by E. G. Marshall
E. G. Marshall (born Everett Eugene Grunz;Everett Eugene Grunz in Minnesota, U.S., Birth Index, 1900-1934, Ancestry.comEverett Eugene Grunz in the U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, accessed via Ancestry.com June 18, ...
, presented the episode "This Will Kill You", which was an updated, loose adaptation of "Casting the Runes".
1975 – Radio 4's ''Story Time'' presented a "Ghost Trilogy", broadcast over three consecutive days in December. The second edition, on 23 December, was an abridged version of "Number 13" read by Peter Barkworth
Peter may refer to:
People
* List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Peter (given name)
** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church
* Peter (surname), a su ...
.
1977 – Michell Raper was a BBC producer who had already made documentaries about Peter Underwood
Peter George Underwood, (10 October 1937 – 7 July 2014) was an Australian jurist and the Governor of Tasmania from 2008 until his death in 2014. He was the Chief Justice of Tasmania from 2004 to 2008, having been a judge of the Supreme Cou ...
and the London Ghost Club. On 27 December, he presented a 30-minute talk entitled ''The Ghosts of M. R. James'', which also featured readings by Gerald Cross, Norman Shelley and Kenneth Fortescue from "Wailing Well", "Lost Hearts", Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad and "Rats".
1978 – On 2 May, the ''CBS Radio Mystery Theater'' presented ''The Figure in the Moonlight'', a loose and uncredited adaptation of "The Mezzotint". In Roy Winsor
Roy William Winsor (April 13, 1912 – May 31, 1987) was an American soap opera writer, creator, producer and mystery novelist. He created three of the longest running soap operas in US television history.
Biography
Roy William Winsor was born ...
's script, "The Department of Fine Arts at Wheeler College, New Hampshire, is bequeathed a collection of mostly worthless art: reproductions, some photographs, an engraving or two. Upon closer inspection, one of the items stands out for its clarity and tone: an engraving of a Victorian mansion with a flagstone path and a wide front porch. A mysterious figure seems to appear and disappear from the engraving, as if re-enacting an earlier encounter."
In the UK, the Hallowe'en edition of Radio 4's ''Forget Tomorrow's Monday'' ("a Sunday morning miscellany") featured Peter Underwood (president of the Ghost Club) talking "about all things strange, from Alchemy to Zombies", and Peter Cushing
Peter Wilton Cushing (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was an English actor. His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than 100 films, as well as many television, stage, and radio roles. He achieved recognition ...
, who gave a reading of "Lost Hearts".
1980 – On 19 December, Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad became Radio 4's ''Book at Bedtime
''Book at Bedtime'' (''A Book at Bedtime'' until 9 July 1993) is a long-running radio programme that is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 each weekday evening between 22.45 and 23.00.
The programme presents readings of fiction, including modern classics, ...
''. It was read in a 15-minute slot by Robert Trotter.
1981 – On 2 January, BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
broadcast an ''Afternoon Theatre'' play called "The Hex", written by Gregory Evans
Gregory Thomas Evans, (June 13, 1913 – May 23, 2010) was a Canadian judge and the first Integrity Commissioner of Ontario.
Born in McAdam, New Brunswick, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Saint Joseph's University in 1934 and gr ...
and loosely based on "Casting the Runes", starring Conrad Phillips
Conrad Philip Havord (13 April 1925 – 13 January 2016), known professionally as Conrad Phillips, was an English television and film actor. He is best known for playing William Tell in the adventure series ''The Adventures of William Tell'' (1 ...
, Peter Copley
Peter Copley (20 May 1915 – 7 October 2008) was an English television, film and stage actor.
Biography
Copley was born in Bushey, Hertfordshire, son of the printmakers, John Copley and Ethel Gabain.
After changing his mind about joining ...
, Carole Boyer and Kim Hartman
Kim Lesley Hartman (born 11 January 1952) is an English actress, best known for her role as Private Helga Geerhart in the BBC television sitcom Allo 'Allo!'' (1982–1992).
She was educated at The King's High School for Girls, Warwick. an ...
. The play was subsequently transmitted, in translation, in several other countries. The 60-minute play has been repeated regularly on BBC Radio 4 Extra since December 2014.
1982 – Radio 4 transmitted two M. R. James stories in the 15-minute ''Morning Story'' slot in 1982. "The Rose Garden" aired on 14 June, and "Rats" followed on 15 November. Both stories were read by Richard Hurndall and the series was produced by Michell "Mitch" Raper.
1983 – ''Morning Story'' also produced "The Haunted Doll's House" icon 11 February the following year. The 15-minute tale was read by David Ashford and broadcast on Radio 4 Long Wave only.
1986 – ''Morning Story'' transmitted another reading of "Rats" on 9 June on BBC Radio 4. James Aubrey was the storyteller, with Mitch Raper again in the producer's chair. The 15-minute show was repeated on 7 October 2018 on Radio 4 Extra.
1997–98 – After a hiatus of eleven years, M. R. James returned to the British airwaves in 1997. Running nightly from 29 December through to 2 January, ''The Late Book: Ghost Stories'' featured readings of five tales: "Canon Alberic's Scrapbook", "Lost Hearts", "A School Story", "The Haunted Dolls' House" and "Rats". The stories were abridged and produced by Paul Kent and read by Benjamin Whitrow
Benjamin John Whitrow (17 February 1937 – 28 September 2017) was an English actor. He was nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor for his role as Mr Bennet in the 1995 BBC version of ''Pride and Prejudice'', and voiced the role of Fow ...
. Episodes were repeated regularly on BBC 7 (Later becoming BBC Radio 7) from December 2003, then on Radio 4 Extra from 2011. According to the BBC Genome
The BBC Genome Project is an online searchable database of programme listings initially based upon the contents of the ''Radio Times'' from the first issue in 1923 to 2009. Television listings from post-2009 can be accessed via the BBC Programme ...
database, the episodes were originally transmitted in a 30-minute slot; however, these listings may be incomplete, as all subsequent broadcasts have been 15 minutes long.
2000 – Radio 4's Woman's Hour
''Woman's Hour'' is a radio magazine programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2, and later BBC Radio 4. It has been on the air since 1946.
History
Created by Norman Collins and originally presented by A ...
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
presented ''The Red Room'', a nine-part anthology of ghost stories by various authors, told as part of an overarching story ("At a Christmas party, the young Rebecca West meets a mysterious stranger. Literary passions, among others, are aroused. What does it take to tell a good ghost story? A challenge is proffered, a battle of wits begins, as does a descent into dark imaginings.") The third episode was a version of "Casting the Runes", with Sean Baker as Dunning, while episode five was a dramatisation of "Count Magnus", with Charlie Simpson as Wraxall. ''The Red Room'' was dramatised by Robin Brooks
Robin Brooks (born 1961 in Leeds) is a British radio dramatist, some-time actor and author.
Selected credits Adaptations
* 2000 – '' The Art of Love'', a comedy, emphasizing Ovid's role as lover, with Bill Nighy and Anne-Marie Duff
* 2004 – ...
and directed by Clive Brill, and the nine 15-minute instalments were broadcast between 18 and 29 December, with several – including the M. R. James adaptations – actually listed as "Ghost stories for Christmas" in the ''Radio Times''.
2006 − On 15 March, Radio 4's ''Afternoon Play
''Drama'' (formerly ''Afternoon Theatre'', ''Afternoon Drama,'' ''Afternoon Play'') is a BBC Radio 4 radio drama, broadcast every weekday at 2.15pm. Generally each play is 45 minutes in duration and approximately 190 new plays are broadcast each ...
'' featured ''The Midnight House'' by Jonathan Hall, a drama influenced by "The Mezzotint". The play was repeated on Radio 4 on 2 July 2007 and has appeared several times on Radio 4 Extra since December 2015.
2007 − Radio 4 presented more M. R. James adaptations in the form of ''M.R. James at Christmas'', a series of five plays in the '' Woman's Hour Drama'' slot. Stories adapted were Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad starring Jamie Glover
Jamie Blair Glover (born 10 July 1969) is an English actor. He is best known for being cast as Harry Potter in the second cast of the West-End production of ''Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'' in 2017. He portrayed Deputy Head Andrew Treneman ...
as Professor Parkins, "The Tractate Middoth" with Joseph Mlllson as Garrett and John Rowe as Eldred, "Lost Hearts" with Peter Marinker
Peter may refer to:
People
* List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Peter (given name)
** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church
* Peter (surname), a su ...
as Abney, "The Rose Garden" with Anton Lesser
Anton Lesser (born 14 February 1952) is an English actor. He is well known for his roles as Qyburn in the HBO series '' Game of Thrones'', as Thomas More in ''Wolf Hall'', as Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in ''The Crown'', as Prime Ministe ...
as George and Carolyn Pickles
Carolyn Pickles (born 8 February 1952) is an English actress who has appeared in West End theatre and on British television. She is known for playing DCI Kim Reid in ''The Bill'' and Shelley Williams in ''Emmerdale''.
Life and career
Pickles ...
as Mary, and "Number 13" with Julian Rhind-Tutt
Julian Alistair Rhind-Tutt (born 20 July 1967) is an English actor, best known for playing Dr "Mac" Macartney in the comedy television series ''Green Wing'' (2004–2006).
Early life
Rhind-Tutt was born in West Drayton, Middlesex, the youngest o ...
as Dr Anderson. The plays were adapted by Chris Harrald and directed and produced by Gemma Jenkins. Each episode was introduced by Derek Jacobi
Sir Derek George Jacobi (; born 22 October 1938) is an English actor. He has appeared in various stage productions of William Shakespeare such as ''Hamlet'', ''Much Ado About Nothing'', ''Macbeth'', ''Twelfth Night'', ''The Tempest'', ''King ...
as James himself. The series ran from Christmas Eve to 28 December, culminating in an original Jamesian drama, ''A Warning to the Furious''. The episodes were released on CD as ''Spine Chillers'' by BBC Audio in 2008. They were repeated on BBC 7 in December 2009 and (under the title ''M. R. James Stories'') on Radio 4 Extra in 2011 and 2018.
These plays would be the last M. R. James radio adaptations for some time. Although repeats of older plays continued on BBC 7 and Radio 4 Extra, it would be more than 10 years before any new dramatisations were produced.
2009 − The series ''Classic Tales of Horror'' included a reading of "The Mezzotint" delivered by Robin Bailey. The episode was transmitted on BBC Radio 7 on 9 October 2009 and repeated on 20 May the following year.
2011 − Radio 3's ''Twenty Minutes,'' an "eclectic arts magazine programme", featured a version of "A Warning to the Curious" on 13 June. The twenty-minute reading was by Alex Jennings, and the script produced and abridged by Justine Willett.
2018 – ''Woman's Hour Drama'' had broadcast the last M. R. James dramatisations before the hiatus. The slot was subsequently rebranded as ''15-Minute Drama'', and in 2018 introduced a new series, ''The Haunting of M. R. James''. "Five of the most powerful tales by this master of the ghost story" were adapted by Neil Brand: "The Mezzotint", "Casting The Runes", "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral", "A Warning to the Curious and "Rats". As had happened in 2007, the five adaptations were followed by an original drama, this time entitled ''The Haunting of M.R. James''. The series aired daily from 17 to 21 December and was directed by David Hunter.
Also on 21 December, a series apparently entitled ''Classic Stories: Tales for Christmas'' was uploaded to BBC Sounds
BBC Sounds is a Closed platform, walled garden streaming media and audio download service from the BBC that includes live radio broadcasts, audio on demand, and podcasts. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile pho ...
. The episodes included a reading of "The Mezzotint" performed by Sam Dale and produced by Justine Willett. The provenance of this series is something of a mystery as it appears to never have been broadcast prior to its appearance online.
2019 – Another website-only production was added to BBC Sounds on 21 June. The 25-minute reading of "Wailing Well" was performed by Joseph Ayre and produced as part of ''Classic Stories: Stories for Summer'' by Julian Wilkinson.
The second radio adaptation of the year arrived in the form of ''Ghost Stories from Ambridge'', a spin-off from ''The Archers
''The Archers'' is a BBC radio drama on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural settin ...
''. The second episode, which aired on Radio 4 on New Year’s Eve, was a reading of "Lost Hearts" ("on a biting December night, in the darkened attic of Lower Loxley, Jim Lloyd enthrals an assembly of Ambridge residents with three chilling ghost stories from the turn of the last century", teased the BBC webpage.) John Rowe played narrator Jim Lloyd and the 14-minute script was abridged by Jeremy Osborne.
Other audio productions
In the 1980s, a series of four double audio cassettes was released by Argo Records
Argo Records was a record label in Chicago that was established in 1955 as a division of Chess Records.
Originally the label was called Marterry, but bandleader Ralph Marterie objected, and within a couple of months the imprint was renamed Ar ...
, featuring nineteen unabridged James stories narrated by Michael Hordern
Sir Michael Murray Hordern CBE (3 October 19112 May 1995)Morley, Sheridan"Hordern, Michael Murray (1911–1995)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition, May 2009, accessed 22 July 2015 was ...
. The tapes were titled ''Ghost Stories'' (1982), ''More Ghost Stories'' (1984), ''A Warning to the Curious'' (1985) and ''No. 13 and Other Ghost Stories'' (1988). ISIS Audio Books also released two collections of unabridged James stories, this time narrated by Nigel Lambert
Nigel Lambert (born 11 May 1944) is an English voice actor. He is best known for his role as the narrator of the first series of the BBC comedy series ''Look Around You'', as well as Merle Ambrose in the MMORPG ''Wizard101''.
Acting since the ...
. These tapes were titled ''A Warning to the Curious and Other Tales'' (four audio cassettes, six stories, March 1992) and ''Ghost Stories of an Antiquary'' (three audio cassettes, eight stories, December 1992).
In Spring 2007 UK-based Craftsman Audio Books released the first complete set of audio recordings of James's stories on CD, spread across two volumes and read by David Collings
David Collings (4 June 1940 – 23 March 2020) was an English actor. In an extensive career he appeared in many roles on stage, television, film and radio, as well as various audio books, voiceovers, concert readings and other work. He garnered ...
. The ghost story author Reggie Oliver acted as consultant on the project.
April 2007 also saw the release of ''Tales of the Supernatural'', Volume One, an audiobook presentation by Fantom Films, featuring the James stories "Lost Hearts" read by Geoffrey Bayldon
Albert Geoffrey Bayldon (7 January 1924 – 10 May 2017) was an English actor. After playing roles in many stage productions, including the works of William Shakespeare, he became known for portraying the title role of the children's series ''C ...
, "Rats" and "Number 13" by Ian Fairbairn
Stephen Ian Fairbairn (14 April 18965 December 1968) was a British financier and rower who competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics, and later rose to the position of chairman of the M&G fund management company.
Personal life
Fairbairn was the son ...
, with Gareth David-Lloyd
Gareth David Lloyd (born 28 March 1981), known professionally as Gareth David-Lloyd, is a Welsh actor and writer best known for his role as Ianto Jones in the British science fiction series ''Torchwood.''
Early life
He was born in Bettws, Newp ...
reading "Casting the Runes" and "There Was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard". Volume Two was to follow in the summer.
Also in 2007, BBC Audio released ''Ghost Stories Volume One'' (including "A View from a Hill", "Rats", "A School Story", "The Ash Tree", and "The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance") read by Derek Jacobi. ''Ghost Stories Volume Two'' followed in 2009 (including "A Warning to the Curious'" "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral"', "The Mezzotint", and "A Neighbour's Landmark"').
As of 2010 the audiobooks site LibriVox
LibriVox is a group of worldwide volunteers who read and record public domain texts, creating free public domain audiobooks for download from their website and other digital library hosting sites on the internet. It was founded in 2005 by Hugh Mc ...
offers a set of audio readings (available as free downloads) under the collective heading ''Ghost Stories of an Antiquary''.
A full-cast audio dramatization of "Casting the Runes" was distributed by Audible in 2019. With a contemporary setting, it was scripted by Stephen Gallagher
Stephen Gallagher (born 13 October 1954) is an English screenwriter and novelist. Gallagher was born in Salford, Greater Manchester.
Career
Gallagher has written novels and television scripts, including for the BBC television series ''Doctor Wh ...
and featured Tom Burke and Anna Maxwell Martin
Anna Maxwell Martin (born Anna Charlotte Martin; 27 May 1977),Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1984–2006 listed birth name as ''Anna Charlotte Martin''; Registration year 1977; Registration District Beverley, Yorkshire som ...
, with Reece Shearsmith
Reeson Wayne "Reece" Shearsmith (born 27 August 1969) is an English actor, writer and comedian. He is best known for being a member of ''The League of Gentlemen'', alongside Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss, and Jeremy Dyson. With Pemberton, he lat ...
in the role of Karswell.
in 2020, a full cast, audio adaptation of Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad was produced under the title "Whistle" by White Heron Theatre of Nantucket, Massachusetts. It was written and directed by Mark Shanahan with original audio production and music by John Gromada. The audio drama bears a contemporary setting and was set on Nantucket Island. Though it deviates from the source material in many aspects, it retains the original's core traits. The cast includes Steve Pacek Alexandra Kopko and Catherine Shanahan. The audio drama was broadcast on Nantucket's NPR affiliate station, WNCK, on October 31, 2020.
In 2018, '' Shadows at the Door: The Podcast'' began a series of full-cast adaptations of James' stories, including ''Number 13'', ''Canon Alberic's Scrapbook'' and ''A Warning to the Curious''. Episodes also featured full readings of ''Rats'' and ''There Was A Man Dwelt By a Churchyard''.
Film
The only notable film version of James's work to date has been the 1957 British adaptation of "Casting the Runes" by Jacques Tourneur
Jacques Tourneur (; November 12, 1904 – December 19, 1977) was a French film director known for the classic film noir ''Out of the Past'' and a series of low-budget horror films he made for RKO Studios, including ''Cat People (1942 film), Cat ...
, titled ''Night of the Demon
''Night of the Demon'' (in the United States, released as ''Curse of the Demon'') is a 1957 British horror film, produced by Hal E. Chester and Frank Bevis, directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins and Niall MacG ...
'' (known as ''Curse of the Demon'' in the US), starring Dana Andrews
Carver Dana Andrews (January 1, 1909 – December 17, 1992) was an American film actor who became a major star in what is now known as film noir. A leading man during the 1940s, he continued acting in less prestigious roles and character parts ...
, Peggy Cummins
Peggy Cummins (born Augusta Margaret Diane Fuller; 18 December 1925 – 29 December 2017) was an Irish actress, born in Wales, who is best known for her performance in Joseph H. Lewis's ''Gun Crazy'' (1950), playing a trigger-happy ''femme fa ...
and Niall MacGinnis
Patrick Niall MacGinnis (29 March 1913 – 6 January 1977) was an Irish actor who made around 80 screen appearances.
Early life
MacGinnis was born in Dublin in 1913. . ''The Brides of Dracula'' (Terence Fisher, 1960) lifts the padlocked coffin scene from "Count Magnus", while Michele Soavi
Michele Soavi, sometimes known as Michael Soavi (born 3 July 1957)Baldassarre, Angela (1999) "The Great Dictators: Interviews with Filmmakers of Italian Descent", Guernica Editions, is an Italian filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter best known fo ...
's 1989 film '' The Church''—featuring a script co-authored by Dario Argento
Dario Argento (; born 7 September 1940) is an Italian film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and film critic, critic. His influential work in the horror film, horror genre during the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in the subgenre known as ...
—borrows the motif of the "stone with seven eyes", as well as a few other important details, from "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas".
A new film adaptation of "Casting the Runes" was announced in 2013 by director Joe Dante
Joseph James Dante Jr. (; born November 28, 1946) is an American film director, producer, editor and actor. His films—notably ''Gremlins'' (1984) alongside its sequel, '' Gremlins 2: The New Batch'' (1990)—often mix 1950s-style B movies wit ...
. It was to be a modernised reimagining of the story, with James's character Dunning portrayed as a celebrity blogger, and Karswell as a successful motivational speaker and self-help guru with connections to the occult. Simon Pegg
Simon John Pegg (né Beckingham; born 14 February 1970) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. He came to prominence in the UK as the co-creator of the Channel 4 sitcom ''Spaced'' (1999–2001), directed by Edgar Wright. H ...
was attached to star. The film has yet to go into production.
Stage
The first stage version of "Casting the Runes" was performed at the Carriageworks Theatre in Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
, England, on 9–10 June 2006 by the Pandemonium Theatre Company.
In 2006–2007 Nunkie Theatre Company toured ''A Pleasing Terror'' round the UK and Ireland. This one-man show was a retelling of two of James's tales, "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book
"Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book" is a horror story by British writer M. R. James, which was written in 1894 and published the following year in the ''National Review''. It was included in his first short story collection, '' Ghost Stories of an Antiq ...
" and "The Mezzotint". In October 2007 a sequel, ''Oh, Whistle ...'', comprising Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad and "The Ash-tree", began to tour the UK. A third James performance, ''A Warning to the Curious'', comprising the eponymous story and "Lost Hearts", began touring the UK in October 2009. Although Robert Lloyd Parry of Nunkie said in 2009 that the last would probably be his final M. R. James tour, he continued to tour the three productions in subsequent years, and in 2012 he announced a fourth production, ''Count Magnus'' (consisting of "Count Magnus" and "Number 13"), to premiere on 28 September of that year.
In the summer of 2011 the Crusade Theatre Company toured a new stage adaptation of Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad in England.
Works
Scholarly works
''A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Peterhouse''
Cambridge University Press, 1899. Reissued by the publisher, 2009.
*
Walter Map : De Nugis Curialium
' (ed.) Anecdota Oxoniensia ; Mediaeval and Modern Series 14. Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1914.
*''A Descriptive Catalogue of the Library of Samuel Pepys''. Sidgwick and Jackson, 1923. Reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009.
''A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Fitzwilliam Museum''
Cambridge University Press, 1895. Reissued by the publisher, 2009.
*''A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge''
Volume 1
Volume 2
Cambridge University Press, 1912. Reissued by the publisher, 2009.
*''A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Gonville and Caius College''
Volume 1
Volume 2
Cambridge University Press, 1907. Reissued by the publisher, 2009;
''A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Jesus College''
Clay and Sons, 1895. Reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009.
''A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Pembroke College, Cambridge''
Cambridge University Press, 1905. Reissued by the publisher, 2009.
''A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of St John's College, Cambridge''
Cambridge University Press, 1913. Reissued by the publisher, 2009.
St. George's Chapel, Windsor : the woodwork of the choir
Windsor : Oxley & Son, 1933.
![Fitwilliam McLean James Plate 77 0609](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Fitwilliam_McLean_James_Plate_77_0609.jpg)
''A Descriptive Catalogue of the McClean Collection of Manuscripts in the Fitzwilliam Museum''
Cambridge University Press, 1913. Reissued by the publisher, 2009.
*''Apocrypha Anecdota''. 1893–1897.
*''Descriptive Catalogues of the Manuscripts in the Libraries of Some Cambridge Colleges''. Cambridge University Press, 2009.
*''Address at the Unveiling of the Roll of Honour of the Cambridge Tipperary Club.''. 1916.
''Henry the Sixth: A Reprint of John Blacman's Memoir''
1919.[Blakman, J., James, M. R. (Montague Rhodes)., Rogers, B. (1919)]
Henry the Sixth: a reprint of John Blacman's memoir
Cambridge ng.
Ng, ng, or NG may refer to:
* Ng (name) (黄 伍 吳), a surname of Chinese origin
Arts and entertainment
* N-Gage (disambiguation), a handheld gaming system
* Naked Giants, Seattle rock band
* '' Spirit Hunter: NG'', a video game
Businesses ...
The University Press.
*''Lists of manuscripts formerly in Peterborough Abbey library: with preface and identifications''. Oxford University Press, 1926. Reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010.
*''New and Old at Cambridge' article on the Cambridge of 1882. 'Fifty Years', various contributors, Thornton Butterworth,1932
*''The Apocalypse in Art''. Schweich Lectures
Schweich is a town in the Trier-Saarburg district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the river Moselle, approx. northeast of Trier.
Schweich is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Schweich an der ...
for 1927.
''The Apocryphal New Testament''
1924.
*''The Bestiary: Being a Reproduction in Full of the Manuscript Ii.4.26 in the University Library, Cambridge''. Printed for the Roxburghe club, by John Johnson at the University Press, 1928.
''The Biblical Antiquities of Philo''
1917.
*
The Lost Apocrypha of the Old Testament
'. Vol. 1, 1920.
''The Wanderings and Homes of Manuscripts''
1919.
*''Two Ancient English Scholars: St Aldhelm and William of Malmesbury''. 1931.
''The Western Manuscripts in the Library of Emmanuel College''
Cambridge University Press, 1904. Reissued by the publisher, 2009.
*''The Western Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College''
Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4
Cambridge University Press, 1904. Reissued by the publisher, 2009.
Ghost stories
First book publications
*''Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
''Ghost Stories of an Antiquary'' is a horror short story collection by British writer M. R. James, published in 1904 (some had previously appeared in magazines). Some later editions under this title contain both the original collection and its su ...
''. 1904. 8 stories.
*''More Ghost Stories
''More Ghost Stories'' is a horror short story collection by British writer M. R. James, published in 1911. Some later editions under the title ''Ghost Stories of an Antiquary'' contain it and the earlier ''Ghost Stories of an Antiquary'' in one ...
''. 1911. 7 stories.
*''A Thin Ghost and Others
''A Thin Ghost and Others'' is a horror short story collection by British writer M. R. James
Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English author, medievalist scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905 ...
''. 1919. 5 stories.
*''A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories
''A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories'' is the title of M. R. James' fourth and final collection of ghost stories, published in 1925.
Montague Rhodes James (1862–1936) was a medievalist scholar; Provost of King's College, Cambri ...
''. 1925. 6 stories.
*''Wailing Well''. 1928 (tale), Mill House Press, Stanford Dingley
Stanford Dingley is a small village and civil parish in West Berkshire, England, between Newbury and Theale.
Geography
Stanford Dingley fills part of both sides of the valley of the upper River Pang, on the minor roads between the A4 Bath Ro ...
.
First magazine publication of uncollected tales
*"After Dark in the Playing Fields", in ''College Days'' (Eton ephemeral magazine), no. 10 (28 June 1924), pp. 311–312, 314
*"There Was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard", in ''Snapdragon'' (Eton ephemeral magazine), 6 December 1924, pp. 4–5
*"Rats", in ''At Random'' (Eton ephemeral magazine), 23 March 1929, pp. 12–14
*"The Experiment: A New Year's Eve Ghost Story", in ''Morning Post
''The Morning Post'' was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by ''The Daily Telegraph''.
History
The paper was founded by John Bell. According to historian Robert Darnton, ''The Morning Po ...
'', 31 December 1931, p. 8
*"The Malice of Inanimate Objects", in ''The Masquerade'' (Eton ephemeral magazine), no. 1 (June 1933), pp. 29–32
*" A Vignette", written 1935, in ''London Mercury
''The London Mercury'' was the name of several periodicals published in London from the 17th to the 20th centuries. The earliest was a newspaper that appeared during the Exclusion Bill crisis; it lasted only 56 issues (1682). (Earlier periodicals ...
'' 35 (November 1936), pp. 18–22
Reprint collections
*'' The Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James''. 1931. Contains the 26 stories from the original four books, plus "After Dark in the Playing Fields" (1924), "There Was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard" (1924), "Wailing Well" (1928), and "Rats" (1929). It does not include three stories completed between 1931 and James's death in 1936.
*''Best Ghost Stories of M. R. James''. 1944.
*''The Ghost Stories of M. R. James''. 1986. Selection by Michael Cox, including an excellent introduction with numerous photographs.
*''Two Ghost Stories: A Centenary''. 1993.
*''The Fenstanton Witch and Others: M. R. James in Ghosts and Scholars''. 1999. Contains seven unpublished or unfinished tales or drafts: "A Night in King's College Chapel" (1892?), "The Fenstanton Witch" (1924?), "John Humphreys" (unfinished, pre-1911), "Marcilly-le-Hayer"(story draft, pre-1929), "Speaker Lenthall's Tomb" (unfinished, 1890s?), "The Game of Bear" (unfinished) and "Merfield House" (unfinished).
*''A Pleasing Terror: The Complete Supernatural Writings''. 2001. Ash-Tree Press. Contains 40 stories: the 30 stories from ''Collected Ghost Stories'', the three tales published after them and the seven items from ''The Fenstanton Witch and Others''. It also includes some related non-fiction by James and some writings about him by others. It is the only complete collection of his ghost fiction, although revised versions of unfinished tales and drafts have subsequently appeared on the Ghosts and Scholars website, following further deciphering of James's handwriting.
*''Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories''. 2005. Edited, with an introduction and notes, by S. T. Joshi.
*''The Haunted Dolls' House and Other Ghost Stories''. 2006. Edited, with an introduction and notes, by S. T. Joshi.
*''Curious Warnings: The Great Ghost Stories of M. R. James''. 2012. Edited, reparagraphing the text for the modern reader, by Stephen Jones.
Guidebooks
*''Abbeys''. 1925.
*''Suffolk and Norfolk''. 1930.
Children's books
* ''The Five Jars''. 1922.
* As translator: ''Forty-Two Stories'', by Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales.
Andersen's fairy tales, consisti ...
, translated and with an introduction by M. R. James. 1930.
Memoirs
* ''Eton and King's, Recollections Mostly Trivial, 1875–1925'', Cambridge University Press, 1925. .
References
Further reading
*Bleiler, E. F. ''The Checklist of Fantastic Literature''. Shasta Publishers, 1948.
*Bloom, Clive. "M. R. James and His Fiction." in Clive Bloom, ed., ''Creepers: British Horror and Fantasy in the Twentieth Century.'' London and Boulder CO: Pluto Press, 1993, pp. 64–71.
*Cox, Michael. ''M. R. James: An Informal Portrait''. Oxford University Press, 1983. .
* Haining, Peter. ''M. R. James: Book of the Supernatural''. W. Foulsham, 1979.
*James, M. R. ''A Pleasing Terror: The Complete Supernatural Writings'', ed. Christopher Roden and Barbara Roden. Ash-Tree Press
Ash-Tree Press is a Canadian company that publishes supernatural and horror literature.
The press has reprinted notable collections of ghostly stories by such writers as R. H. Malden, A. N. L. Munby, L. T. C. Rolt, Margery Lawrence, and Elea ...
, 2001. .
* Joshi, S. T. Introductions to ''Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories''. Penguin Classics, 2005. and ''The Haunted Dolls' House and Other Ghost Stories''. Penguin Classics, 2006. .
*
*
* (concentrates on his scholarly work)
* Sullivan, Jack. ''Elegant Nightmares: The English Ghost Story from Le Fanu to Blackwood''. Ohio University Press, 1980. .
*Tolhurst, Peter. ''East Anglia—a Literary Pilgrimage''. Black Dog Books, Bungay, 1996. . (pp. 99–101).
* Wagenknecht, Edward. ''Seven Masters of Supernatural Fiction''. Greenwood Press, 1991. .
* Weighell, Ron
Dark Devotions: M. R. James and the Magical Tradition
''Ghosts and Scholars'' 6 (1984):20–30
External links
;Digital collections
*
*
*
*
hosted by the University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
School of Arts and Sciences
''Shadows at the Door: The Podcast''
a series of full-cast adaptations of James' stories
;Analysis and scholarship
*
' – online magazine devoted to James and related literature and writers
– compiled by Rosemary Pardoe, 2007
A Thin Ghost
– collections include comprehensive film & TV listing, bibliography of fictional works and James-related illustrations
BBC Suffolk feature about M. R. James
– concerning the author's links with Great Livermere and Suffolk
*
Fright Nights: The Horror of M. R. James
– article by Anthony Lane in ''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
''
Great Thinkers: Uta Frith FBA on M. R. James FBA
podcast, The British Academy
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:James, M. R.
1862 births
1936 deaths
Alumni of King's College, Cambridge
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English horror writers
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Members of the Order of Merit
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