Ghosts & Scholars 3 & 4

[dem bones]

Rosemary Pardoe (ed.) - Ghosts & Scholars #3, (Haunted Library, 1981)

Russ Nicholson with Martin Helsdon Casting The Runes

Ramsey Campbell - The Burning
Stephen Gresham - The Abysmal
A. F. Kidd - Old Hobby Horse
David G. Rowlands - The Uncommon Salt

M.R. James - Letters to a Child ("MRJ's charming letters to Sibyl Cropper, first published in the Cornhill Magazine, 1939.")

Reviews
David G. Rowlands - L.H.Maynard & M.P.N. Sims's Shadows at Midnight
Richard Dalby - Richard William Pfaff's Montague Rhodes James
Rosemary Pardoe - Basil Smith's The Scallion Stone

Artwork this issue: Alan Hunter, A. F. Kidd, David Lloyd, Russ Nicholson

Rosemary Pardoe (ed.) - Ghosts & Scholars #4, (Haunted Library, 1982)

David Lloyd

William Farlie Clarke - The Poor Nun Of Burtisford
Sheila Hodgson - "Come, Follow!"
David G. Rowlands - The Executor

Richard Dalby - Amyas Northcote: A Forgotten Master Of The Ghost Story
Rosemary Pardoe - The Unfinished Ghost Stories Of M. R. James Read here

Artwork this issue: Alan Hunter, A. F. Kidd, David Lloyd

From the first issue there was a glorious balance to Ghosts & Scholars: three, sometimes four splendid examples of the Jamesian ghost story, offset by enlightening articles by the likes of Messers Dalby, Ashley, Lamb, Rowlands and of course, Rosemary Pardoe herself. Throw in plenty of inspired artwork (and, to be fair, in my opinion at least, the occasional less accomplished piece) and you've started with a format that will see you admirably through thirty issues.

Not having seen a copy, i can't begin to guess at Ramsey Campbell's reasons for including Guy Fawkes shocker, The Burning, in his collection of supposed misfires, Inconsequential Tales. It's not the least Jamesian, but it is a full on horror story and they tend to go down rather well with this reader. Richard H. Fawcett would later include it in his eight story compilation booklet The Best Of Ghosts & Scholars (1986) where it was joined by William Farlie Clarke's smashing The Poor Nun Of Burtisford (see Creepy Nuns). Sheila Hodgson's "Come, Follow!", taking it's inspiration from the 'evil Catholic priest' plot as outlined by M. R. James in Stories I Have Tried To Write, is a warning to the curious against trusting a priest with hairy eyebrows. The articles, unsurprisingly, are must reads. Richard Dalby on Amyas Northcote, for example, would have been ideal for as an introduction to Wordsworth's In Ghostly Company, while Rosemary's The Unfinished Ghost Stories Of M. R. James is an annotated listing of seven manuscripts found in the King's College and Cambridge University libraries (three of which The Fenstanton Witch, A Night in King's College Chapel and John Humphreys would go on to see publication in Ghosts & Scholars).

[dem bones]

Sheila Hodgson - "Come, Follow!": Set in 1896. Cambridge undergraduates Paul Berneys and George Markham travel down to Suffolk for the Christmas holidays. Much to his surprise, Paul has recently inherited the manor house at West Farthing from his grandfather. It was always assumed the property would pass to his Uncle Nicholas, but a dalliance with a young floozie tested the old man's patience too far and Nicholas Berneys would be destitute were it not for the 'kindness' of Rev. Alaric Halsey of St. Wilbrods who has given him a room at the Rectory.

Uncle Nicholas arrives unannounced at West Farthing accompanied by a mongrel dog. Paul has been shaving and the sight of his razor has the elder Berneys jump out of his skin and sets the dog to barking it's head off. At least Nicholas holds no grudges over the inheritance but that doesn't make him any easier to be around. He's a nervous wreck, prone to start upright at the least noise and his miserable demeanour is contagious.

If his uncle bears Paul no malice, the same cannot be said with any great confidence of the Reverend Alaric Halsey. The young men first catch sight of him making his way home during a downpour and offer him a lift only for their horse to bolt at first glimpse of his hairy eyebrows. Halsey makes it known that he feels his charity has been imposed upon, and we wonder if perhaps he too had designs on the Manor. His Church, a crumbling Norman affair, has had no congregation since the village relocated five miles away. For a Catholic Priest, this man expresses some very off colour opinions.

Rev Halsey pressurises Paul to accept an invitation to dine with he and Nicholas at the rectory on Christmas Eve. Paul reluctantly complies, but, not wishing to endure this learned but creepy charmer and his stammering uncle alone, drags his college friend along to suffer alongside him. Halsey hadn't counted on this and visibly seethes at the intrusion. The meal proves every bit the ordeal anticipated, but things get even worse when Halsey sits down at the piano and Nicholas bursts into a rendition of "Come, Follow!" which summons a dead something from its tomb to tap against the outside window .....

[Johnlprobert]

Very spooky - old Sheila has probably gone for years without anyone reading her story 'Come Follow' and then two reprobates come along and read it in the same week!

I've just finished reading this in KEW's Year's Best Horror Stories Volume XI (I think - the numbers get a bit blurry after a while), and it's not bad at all.

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

GHOSTS AND SCHOLARS 3 (1981)

Editor & Publisher - Rosemary Pardoe
Editorial Consultants - David Rowlands & Harold Cranford

CONTENTS –

"The Burning" by Ramsey Campbell
As I noted in my write up for The Best of Ghosts and Scholars; Blake seems to see a bit too much when he looks into the faces of the crowd that are gathered on bonfire night. A story that seems to have been a little controversial on its first printing in G&S 3, as it's not immediately Jamesian. Ten years on from that rather brisk description, the links between this story and the chilling passages in After Dark in the Playing Fields concerning crowds and the curious faces glimpsed among them after dark are more readily apparent.

"The Uncommon Salt" by David G. Rowlands (illustration by Dave Carson)
Spilt salt at the dinner table prompts Father O'Connor to relate a tale from the days of his training for the priesthood when he accompanied his tutor, the popular but somewhat untrustworthy Father Campbell, to the country home of Michael Stacey, prospective heir to the entire estate, and his guardian, Colonel Stacey. To quote the passage in Stories I Have Tried to Write from which the tale is drawn; Dark walks home at night after dining with the uncle. Curious disturbances as they pass through the shrubberies. Strange, shapeless tracks in the snow round the house, observed in the morning. Efforts to lure away the companion and isolate the proprietor and get him to come out after dark... And while the source of the haunting may be easily defined, the nature of the visitant is something quite unusual.

"Old Hobby Horse" written and illustrated by A.F. Kidd
The second story of two which claim inspiration in Stories I Have Tried to Write. Mr Durham's friend invites him to an ancient hostelry with links to an obsolete Morris Dancing custom. The friend had abandoned his own researches into the picturesque dance rituals following a night when he, to once more quote James, while sitting in his study one evening, was startled by a slight sound, turned hastily, and saw a certain dead face looking out from between the window curtains: a dead face, but with living eyes.

"The Abysmal" by Stephen Gresham (illustrations by David Lloyd)
Although the preceding two stories are credited as being based on plot ideas suggested in Stories I Have Tried to Write, this tale is inspired by that essay's closing paragraph, only with a white ferret substituting for the toad in James's study. The narrator, an aspiring writer of 'weird fiction', finds that the arrival of his unexpected house-guest acts like a muse to his darker imaginings. But it's as well to remember James's warning about more formidable visitants, as something particularly ghastly is heard in the passageway outside the narrator's study...

"Letters to a Child" by M.R. James (introduced by Rosemary Pardoe, with thanks to Richard Dalby)

The first publication in 40 years of M.R. James's quite simply delightful, charming and laugh out loud funny letters to Sybil Cropper written in 1903, and published, with Cropper's footnotes, in the Cornhill Magazine in 1939. Drunken owls and fraudulent rooks abound, and the same gentle absurdity that informs After Dark in the Playing Fields and The Five Jars is to the fore.

REVIEWS -

"Montague Rhodes James" by Richard Wiiliam Pfaff (reviewed by Richard Dalby)
"The Scallion Stone" by Canon Basil A. Smith (reviewed by Ro Pardoe)
"Shadows at Midnight" by L.H. Maynard & M.P.N. Sims (reviewed by David Rowlands)

Notes on the Authors and Artists

OTHER ARTWORK -

Russ Nicholson/Martin Helsdon - (Front Cover - Casting the Runes)
A.F. Kidd - (Back Cover - The Story of a Disappearance...)
Russ Nicholson - (Inside Front - M.R.J.)

[Michael Connolly]

Here are two pages of "The Abysmal" illustrated by David Lloyd.

[ropardoe]

Dec 18, 2017 19:39:39 GMT The Lurker In The Shadows said:

GHOSTS AND SCHOLARS 3 (1981)

Editor & Publisher - Rosemary Pardoe
Editorial Consultants - David Rowlands & Harold Cranford

CONTENTS –

"The Burning" by Ramsey Campbell
As I noted in my write up for The Best of Ghosts and Scholars; Blake seems to see a bit too much when he looks into the faces of the crowd that are gathered on bonfire night. A story that seems to have been a little controversial on its first printing in G&S 3, as it's not immediately Jamesian. Ten years on from that rather brisk description, the links between this story and the chilling passages in After Dark in the Playing Fields concerning crowds and the curious faces glimpsed among them after dark are more readily apparent.


"Letters to a Child" by M.R. James (introduced by Rosemary Pardoe, with thanks to Richard Dalby)

The first publication in 40 years of M.R. James's quite simply delightful, charming and laugh out loud funny letters to Sybil Cropper written in 1903, and published, with Cropper's footnotes, in the Cornhill Magazine in 1939. Drunken owls and fraudulent rooks abound, and the same gentle absurdity that informs After Dark in the Playing Fields and The Five Jars is to the fore.

"The Burning" is going to be one of the stories in the Ghosts & Scholars Book of Folk Horror - so now people will be able to argue on two points: is it Jamesian and is it folk horror?  Myself, I'm absolutely sure it's both.

So pleased that the "Letters to a Child" delighted you so much.  I was reading them again the other day, looking for an extra quote to add to one of the essays in The Black Pilgrimage, and I was chuckling throughout.  They really are lovely, and utterly hilarious.  One of my favourites is the one about the 'rude stones' in Brittany and their remarks about MRJ's hat.  Plus the inebriated "brown owl of medium height" which asks MRJ, "What I should like to know is which of us is drunkest; me, or you that's riding two bicycles".

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

I found the apparition in The Abysmal very memorable and nicely disturbing. I'm quite relieved I hadn't read this one till now, as the central idea of an animal entity acting as a muse to darker presentiments was one I used in If You Don't Come To Me, I'll Come To You - with the toad in the study inspiring M.R.J to look a little deeper into one of his own stories - and I might have avoided the notion had I known it had previously been used.

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

Dec 20, 2017 14:44:18 GMT ropardoe said:

So pleased that the "Letters to a Child" delighted you so much.  I was reading them again the other day, looking for an extra quote to add to one of the essays in The Black Pilgrimage, and I was chuckling throughout.  They really are lovely, and utterly hilarious.  One of my favourites is the one about the 'rude stones' in Brittany and their remarks about MRJ's hat.  Plus the inebriated "brown owl of medium height" which asks MRJ, "What I should like to know is which of us is drunkest; me, or you that's riding two bicycles".

The slip of paper signed 'Mr. Bradshore' led to several minutes of sustained laughter, as did the hat remark, and numerous other little details. Just joyful!

[Michael Connolly]

The Editorial in Ghosts & Scholars 4 cites the potential publication of a study of M.R. James’s stories, From the Corner of My Eye by Laurence Staig. What happened to it?

Ghosts & Scholars 4 also contains a story, “The Poor Nun of Burtisford”, by the Reverend William Fairlie Clarke. The first one and a half sentences shocked me. “It came about in this way. Cyril Trollope and I had long promised ourselves the pleasure of a tramp together in the Cotswolds [!]”.   The dirty beasts!  This is from a Rev! A Trollope indeed! I will scrutinise all other issues of Ghosts & Scholars for muck. It looks like it's too late to clean up the upcoming Ghosts & Scholars 34.

[Michael Connolly]

Sept 25, 2018 12:17:00 GMT Michael Connolly said:

The Editorial in Ghosts & Scholars 4 cites the potential publication of a study of M.R. James’s stories, From the Corner of My Eye by Laurence Staig. What happened to it?

Ghosts & Scholars 4 also contains a story, “The Poor Nun of Burtisford”, by the Reverend William Fairlie Clarke. The first one and a half sentences shocked me. “It came about in this way. Cyril Trollope and I had long promised ourselves the pleasure of a tramp together in the Cotswolds [!]”.   The dirty beasts!  This is from a Rev! A Trollope indeed! I will scrutinise all other issues of Ghosts & Scholars for muck. It looks like it's too late to clean up the upcoming Ghosts & Scholars 34.

Rosemary,

Is my copy of Ghosts & Scholars 34 redacted yet?

[ropardoe]

Sept 28, 2018 12:19:55 GMT Michael Connolly said:

Sept 25, 2018 12:17:00 GMT Michael Connolly said:

The Editorial in Ghosts & Scholars 4 cites the potential publication of a study of M.R. James’s stories, From the Corner of My Eye by Laurence Staig. What happened to it?

Ghosts & Scholars 4 also contains a story, “The Poor Nun of Burtisford”, by the Reverend William Fairlie Clarke. The first one and a half sentences shocked me. “It came about in this way. Cyril Trollope and I had long promised ourselves the pleasure of a tramp together in the Cotswolds [!]”.   The dirty beasts!  This is from a Rev! A Trollope indeed! I will scrutinise all other issues of Ghosts & Scholars for muck. It looks like it's too late to clean up the upcoming Ghosts & Scholars 34.

Rosemary,

Is my copy of Ghosts & Scholars 34 redacted yet?

Redacted?  Why - do you only want the censored version?  But yes, your copy has been posted, unlike those for the poor unfortunate souls in the second half of the alphabet or overseas.  Health issues and a cockup on the envelope front has meant that the mail-out is even slower than usual.  All copies should have been posted by the second week of October though.

[Michael Connolly]

Sept 29, 2018 8:17:17 GMT ropardoe said:

Sept 28, 2018 12:19:55 GMT Michael Connolly said:

Rosemary,

Is my copy of Ghosts & Scholars 34 redacted yet?

Redacted?  Why - do you only want the censored version?  But yes, your copy has been posted, unlike those for the poor unfortunate souls in the second half of the alphabet or overseas.  Health issues and a cockup on the envelope front has meant that the mail-out is even slower than usual.  All copies should have been posted by the second week of October though.

Thanks.  As long as it's in its usual brown envelope!

I've just discovered that Laurence Staig's Jamesian Young Adult novel Shapeshifter (Lions, 1992) has been revised, renamed, and reissued as The Companion (The Brooligan Press, 2018). www.amazon.co.uk/Companion-Laurence-Staig/dp/1999920775/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1538221751&sr=1-1&keywords=the+companion+staig



From the back cover of The Companion:

“A finer, more chilling ghostly novel than most of those recently published. Mr Damp deserves a place in the gallery of great English night creatures. M. R. James might have been proud to have created him, and I certainly would be.”  Ramsey Campbell.

“Truly, a Jamesian romp. The author uses his sources with care, in a well-plotted mystery with some genuine chills.”  Rosemary Pardoe, Ghosts and Scholars.

Who are these people?

[Jojo Lapin X]

Sept 29, 2018 11:56:38 GMT Michael Connolly said:

Who are these people?

They are probably famous in certain specialized circles, because I notice some people here have adopted them as their user names.

[ropardoe]

Sept 29, 2018 11:56:38 GMT Michael Connolly said:

Sept 29, 2018 8:17:17 GMT ropardoe said:

From the back cover of The Companion:

“A finer, more chilling ghostly novel than most of those recently published. Mr Damp deserves a place in the gallery of great English night creatures. M. R. James might have been proud to have created him, and I certainly would be.”  Ramsey Campbell.

“Truly, a Jamesian romp. The author uses his sources with care, in a well-plotted mystery with some genuine chills.”  Rosemary Pardoe, Ghosts and Scholars.

Who are these people?

I've heard of the first, but no idea on the second.  A Google search comes up with a doctor's receptionist in Dudley!

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

Whoever these people are who recommend such macabre fare, it worked... A copy of The Companion has been ordered and is eagerly anticipated.