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Post by jamesdoig on Apr 2, 2016 22:21:23 GMT
I totally agree - both books are excellent, and The Lore of the Land in particular has an excellent two page spread on M.R. James and the (supposed) legend of the three East Anglian crowns. Quite a few copies of this ended up in remainder bookshops a few years ago and could be bought cheaply - from memory there was a similarly formatted Scottish folklore book which was also remaindered, though stupidly I didn't pick up a copy.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Apr 4, 2016 10:43:25 GMT
It should be noted that The Lore of the Land, which is a huge book, is very comprehensive. It covers everything from the ghosts of headless ducks to the h***g*te "vampire" (if I dare mention his name).
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Post by rawlinson on Apr 5, 2016 23:27:52 GMT
It should be noted that The Lore of the Land, which is a huge book, is very comprehensive. It covers everything from the ghosts of headless ducks to the h***g*te "vampire" (if I dare mention his name). And with the mention of headless ducks the book is ordered.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 11, 2016 8:31:13 GMT
About Rosemary's reference to The Lore of the Land: A Guide to England's Legends, from Spring-heeled Jack to the Witches of Warboys (2005) by Jacqueline Simpson and Jennifer Westwood, I am currently re-reading Westwood's Albion: A Guide to Legendary Britain (1985), essentially an earlier version of the hugely-expanded and heavily-illustrated later book. Both are strongly recommended if you want to read folklore about deals with the devil, death-portents and shape-changing horrors etc. MRJ is cited in both books. I totally agree - both books are excellent, and The Lore of the Land in particular has an excellent two page spread on M.R. James and the (supposed) legend of the three East Anglian crowns. Another Jacqueline Simpson book which I like very much (and which is a good sourcebook for story ideas) is Green Men & White Swans: The Folklore of British Pub Names. Jacqueline Simpson's Green Men & White Swans: The Folklore of British Pub Names has gone straight to impossible wants list. Am glad it's a mass market effort (Arrow, 2011), as might actually be able to order it from local library/ gym/ job centre/ donut emporium/ dvd outlet, etc, AKA 'The idea store'. Pub signs horrific, haunted, or otherwise, feature quite prominently on the Worst Pub Landlords thread. Ionicus Haven't got around to finishing it yet, but could be that Denys Val Baker may have included a few examples in Stories Of Haunted Inns. And, of course, while not exactly haunted .... "The inn sign ... was in the nature of a coffin supported by six headless bearers goose-stepping towards a white headstone, and underneath this somewhat forbidding daub with grim irony, the legend 'Ye Journey's End'" - Guy Preston.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 20, 2016 11:10:39 GMT
Rosemary Pardoe's review of the Terror Tales series is now available to read on-line via Paul Finch's consistently rewarding Walking In The Dark blog. The entry begins with Paul sharing his take on what constitutes a 'Jamesian' ghost story.
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Post by ropardoe on Apr 22, 2016 10:19:10 GMT
Rosemary Pardoe's review of the Terror Tales series is now available to read on-line via Paul Finch's consistently rewarding Walking In The Dark blog. The entry begins with Paul sharing his take on what constitutes a 'Jamesian' ghost story. Paul's is a very good analysis too. The only thing I'd add is the importance of landscape.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 22, 2016 14:57:47 GMT
Rosemary Pardoe's review of the Terror Tales series is now available to read on-line via Paul Finch's consistently rewarding Walking In The Dark blog. The entry begins with Paul sharing his take on what constitutes a 'Jamesian' ghost story. Paul's is a very good analysis too. The only thing I'd add is the importance of landscape. Some time sice I've read it, but In The Thicket, Paul's contribution to Charlie Black's Third Black Book Of Horror (Mortbury Press, 2008), struck me as very Jamesian. Lurkio is a better judge of these matters, so you might like to request a second opinion.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Apr 25, 2016 11:18:38 GMT
Regarding Rosemary’s reference to M.R. James’s use of landscape, he was a fan of Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey detective novels. He cited The Nine Tailors (1934) as his favourite. There is an article in The Ghosts & Scholars M.R. James Newsletter 13 about the influence of M.R. James on The Nine Tailors, which is very apparent on reading it. By far the best of her novels, her atmospheric evocation of the flat fenland landscape with its isolated churches is very Jamesian. In 1947, after film director Michael Powell had made the remarkable A Matter of Life and Death (1946) and around the time of Black Narcissus (1947), he approached Sayers about making a film of The Nine Tailors. She turned him down, which is rather a shame, as it could have also have been remarkable. Maybe she wasn’t taken with the nymphomaniacal nun in Black Narcissus.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Apr 27, 2016 12:40:56 GMT
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Post by ropardoe on Apr 27, 2016 18:09:47 GMT
It's a bit heavy going, but not too bad as academic articles go. The point about the number of murders in MRJ's tales is a good one: I think he was as much a fan of crime fiction as he was supernatural tales, and it definitely shows. This is particularly so with "Two Doctors", I think. We still haven't got to the bottom of that one.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Apr 28, 2016 12:42:46 GMT
It's a bit heavy going, but not too bad as academic articles go. The point about the number of murders in MRJ's tales is a good one: I think he was as much a fan of crime fiction as he was supernatural tales, and it definitely shows. This is particularly so with "Two Doctors", I think. We still haven't got to the bottom of that one. The article was a tad too academic for me. I stopped reading it!
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Oct 26, 2016 14:29:40 GMT
Jane Jakeman, author of one of this issue's stories, has another (somewhat gentler) ghost story read as this week's pre-Hallowe'en instalment of 'The People's Friend Presents...' a weekly audio podcast I've been involved in, featuring story readings from the pages of the long-running weekly magazine, 'The People's Friend', and its spin-off 'People's Friend Special' magazine. www.thepeoplesfriend.co.uk/2016/10/26/peoples-friend-presents-workhouse-girl/ While The PF might not be standard Vault material, producing some other instalments of the podcast has been interesting, and lead to me spending a fun day in the recording studio with Lesley Mackie and her husband, Terry Wale - Lesley having played Daisy in 'The Wicker Man' and 'The Wicker Tree' (which also featured Terry), and also having sung several tracks on the film's soundtrack.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Apr 12, 2018 13:15:17 GMT
It should be noted that The Lore of the Land, which is a huge book, is very comprehensive. It covers everything from the ghosts of headless ducks to the h***g*te "vampire" (if I dare mention his name). The Lore of the Land mentions that "The Radiant Boy" apparition in Yorkshire was seen by Old John Mealyface, who makes a guest appearance from other books about local legends. He ensured that no one stole any of his flour by pressing his face into the top of his flour sacks. He could then see by checking the impression of his visage if the flour had been disturbed when he came home.
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Post by ropardoe on Apr 13, 2018 7:55:22 GMT
About Rosemary's reference to The Lore of the Land: A Guide to England's Legends, from Spring-heeled Jack to the Witches of Warboys (2005) by Jacqueline Simpson and Jennifer Westwood, I am currently re-reading Westwood's Albion: A Guide to Legendary Britain (1985), essentially an earlier version of the hugely-expanded and heavily-illustrated later book. Both are strongly recommended if you want to read folklore about deals with the devil, death-portents and shape-changing horrors etc. MRJ is cited in both books. Watch this space for some exciting Jacqueline Simpson-related news later in the year!
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Post by Michael Connolly on Apr 14, 2018 12:45:49 GMT
It should be noted that The Lore of the Land, which is a huge book, is very comprehensive. It covers everything from the ghosts of headless ducks to the h***g*te "vampire" (if I dare mention his name). The Lore of the Land mentions that "The Radiant Boy" apparition in Yorkshire was seen by Old John Mealyface, who makes a guest appearance from other books about local legends. He ensured that no one stole any of his flour by pressing his face into the top of his flour sacks. He could then see by checking the impression of his visage if the flour had been disturbed when he came home. Old John Mealyface seems to have been a real-life horror who met a supernatural horror.
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