Ghosts & Scholars 44

[dem bones]

Arrived this morning;

Benjamin Harris [ed.] - Ghosts & Scholars #44 (Haunted Library, April 2023)

Jim Pitts

Benjamin Harris - Editorial
Jamesian News
Rick Kennett - Jamesian Podcasts
Rosemary Pardoe - Lady Waldrop's Notes

Fiction
Katherine Haynes - Ripples
Timothy Granville - Some Recent Donations

Articles
Tony Medawar - Ghosts & Marvels: M. R. James as Dramatist
Iain Smith - Recycled Revenants: The Recurring Nightmare of The Fenstanton Witch

Reviews
Rosemary Pardoe, on Stephen Jones [ed.], A Little Jasmine Book of M. R. James
Benjamin Harris, on Rosemary Pardoe [ed.], The Ghosts & Scholars Book of Follies and Grottoes
Rosemary Pardoe, on Paul Finch [ed.], Terror Tales of the West Country
C. E. Ward, on Count Magnus, directed by Mark Gatiss.

.... and the special booklet ....

Jim Bryant [ed.] - Diggin 'ere: Excavating with M. R. James in Cyprus 1887/8 (Haunted Library, April 2023)

Introduction
Diggin 'ere: Excavating with M. R. James in Cyprus 1887/8
Notes on the Transcriptions

[dem bones]

Benjamin Harris's editorial comes live from a haunted house - his own - which, understandably, he is in no great hurry to renovate. Lady Waldrop's column is devoted to the Government's £ multi-billion HS2 vanity project - as if they've not given us more than enough to remember them for this past thirteen years. Her Ladyship's concerns arise from the destruction of vast swathes of ancient woodland and the devastating effect on the wildlife and unquiet spirits lurking there-in. I can only share her hope that the latter take matters into their own hands, wreak vengeance on those responsible - the bloodier the better, my spectral friends. Rosemary Pardoe's review of Stephen Jones' A Little Jasmine Book of M. R. James, resurrects the paragraphgate controversy of 2012 - or rather, Mr. Jones does, via his introduction to the sampler. The editor's endorsement of The Ghosts & Scholars Book of Follies & Grottoes reminds us that we've not moaned about the lack of a paperback edition for at least ten minutes. As a huge fan of Paul Finch's Terror Tales series, I found Ro's review of same particularly intriguing, not least for those few stories she dislikes. The short fiction is, as ever, magnificent.

Katherine Haynes - Ripples: An unpopular master drowns in an attempted rescue of a pupil he has been misled to believe is in difficulty on the lake. The late Mr. Lockwood's needless death is commemorated in a sick joke. Now Ralph Birch, the pupil indirectly responsible for the tragedy, returns for an old boy's reunion ....

Timothy Granville - Some Recent Donations: Museum directors wisely withdraw a display of witchcraft paraphernalia recovered during renovation work at Blackwater Farm, Selby, home to the tragedy-stricken Yates family over several generations.

[dem bones]

Tony Medawar - Ghosts & Marvels: M. R. James as Dramatist: M. R. James quoted on his adaptations of Bluebeard and Ali Baba as performed by the choristers at Kings College in 1895 and '96, "plays which I believe to have anticipated with singular accuracy the effects of those realistic drama's of a later day which are known as Grand Guignol .... There is no doubt that terror if not pity was stirred by these performances." Also, synopses of, and contemporary reports on his St. Nicholas Miracle plays, including the Boy Bishop's encounter with the patrons of a murder inn and the spectres of their three child-victims; the ghost of Thomas Wilkes; and the bloody and terrible fate of three schoolboys who stole tarts intended for the mayor's dinner.

[Michael Connolly]

I thought that the best pieces in Ghosts & Scholars 44 were two contrasting articles, the one by Iain Smith on the weaknesses of MRJ's first-draft "The Fenstanton Witch", and the other by C.E. Ward on the strengths of the television adaptation of "Count Magnus".

[dem bones]

May 10, 2023 13:36:20 GMT Michael Connolly said:

I thought that the best pieces in Ghosts & Scholars 44 were two contrasting articles, the one by Iain Smith on the weaknesses of MRJ's first-draft "The Fenstanton Witch", and the other by C.E. Ward on the strengths of the television adaptation of "Count Magnus".

Preferred the Tony Medawar piece to both, excellent reads though they are. Not having watched Count Magnus at Christmas might have something to do with it. That The Fenstanton Witch is first-draft unpolished is probably what I like about it.