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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Apr 2, 2009 18:33:28 GMT
I was very sad to hear (through cw67q's posting about The Haunted Bookshelf) about the death of Michael Cox, author of the excellent biography "M.R. James - An Informal Portrait", and editor and co-editor of several very good ghost story anthologies, "The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories" and "The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories" (both with R.A. Gilbert), and "Casting the Runes", a volume of M.R. James stories with excellent footnotes. He also co-wrote the script for Anglia's MRJ documentary "A Pleasant Terror", and cropped up in BBC4's recent ghost story documentaries. More recently, Cox gained fame as the author of the Victorian thriller "The Meaning of Night", which he completed, after years of toying with the idea, when the drugs he was taking to combat the deterioration in his eyesight caused by cancer caused a tremendous surge of energy. A sequel to "The Meaning of Night" "The Glass of Time" was published last year, while "In Vitro", his homage to MRJ, was the highlight of Ash Tree Press's anthology "Shades of Darkness". www.sarahweinman.com/confessions/2009/04/michael-cox-rip-.html |
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Post by David A. Riley on Apr 2, 2009 22:25:00 GMT
Although I have had Shades of Darkness for several months, I only got round to reading In Vitro tonight. What an amazing story. And what a great writer.
David
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Post by dem bones on Apr 3, 2009 21:43:14 GMT
He was a class act for sure, one of those blessed people who could pull off academic without being in the least stuffy as i'm sure lurker will agree. The Oxford Ghost books he co-edited and the Illustrated J. S. Le Fanu he compiled for the doomed Equation were my favourites, but i'm also extremely fond of his MRJ biography. Incredibly, i picked up my copy for 20p, withdrawn from Plaistow library when they were having a clear out. Takes you back, doesn't it? libraries that actually stocked books. And it was only eight years ago. Good luck with reviving haunted bookshelf in his honour, Chris. *cover scan replaced 12 April 2021 |
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Post by Michael Connolly on Oct 17, 2018 13:21:53 GMT
I was very sad to hear (through cw67q's posting about The Haunted Bookshelf) about the death of Michael Cox, author of the excellent biography "M.R. James - An Informal Portrait", and editor and co-editor of several very good ghost story anthologies, "The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories" and "The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories" (both with R.A. Gilbert), and "Casting the Runes", a volume of M.R. James stories with excellent footnotes. He also co-wrote the script for Anglia's MRJ documentary "A Pleasant Terror", and cropped up in BBC4's recent ghost story documentaries. More recently, Cox gained fame as the author of the Victorian thriller "The Meaning of Night", which he completed, after years of toying with the idea, when the drugs he was taking to combat the deterioration in his eyesight caused by cancer caused a tremendous surge of energy. A sequel to "The Meaning of Night" "The Glass of Time" was published last year, while "In Vitro", his homage to MRJ, was the highlight of Ash Tree Press's anthology "Shades of Darkness". www.sarahweinman.com/confessions/2009/04/michael-cox-rip-.htmlI'm not able to keep up with all Jamesian fiction so have never read "In Vitro" by Michael Cox. Can you or anyone else give a spoiler-free idea of its plot? |
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Post by Michael Connolly on Oct 19, 2018 12:33:03 GMT
I was very sad to hear (through cw67q's posting about The Haunted Bookshelf) about the death of Michael Cox, author of the excellent biography "M.R. James - An Informal Portrait", and editor and co-editor of several very good ghost story anthologies, "The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories" and "The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories" (both with R.A. Gilbert), and "Casting the Runes", a volume of M.R. James stories with excellent footnotes. He also co-wrote the script for Anglia's MRJ documentary "A Pleasant Terror", and cropped up in BBC4's recent ghost story documentaries. More recently, Cox gained fame as the author of the Victorian thriller "The Meaning of Night", which he completed, after years of toying with the idea, when the drugs he was taking to combat the deterioration in his eyesight caused by cancer caused a tremendous surge of energy. A sequel to "The Meaning of Night" "The Glass of Time" was published last year, while "In Vitro", his homage to MRJ, was the highlight of Ash Tree Press's anthology "Shades of Darkness". www.sarahweinman.com/confessions/2009/04/michael-cox-rip-.htmlI'm not able to keep up with all Jamesian fiction so have never read "In Vitro" by Michael Cox. Can you or anyone else give a spoiler-free idea of its plot? No takers yet. |
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Oct 19, 2018 13:14:26 GMT
I'm not able to keep up with all Jamesian fiction so have never read "In Vitro" by Michael Cox. Can you or anyone else give a spoiler-free idea of its plot? No takers yet. I need to glance over it again to make sure I've got the details right. I've read a lot of stories - mostly Jamesian - in the near-decade since I posted that original remark. |
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Post by Michael Connolly on Oct 19, 2018 13:33:23 GMT
I need to glance over it again to make sure I've got the details right. I've read a lot of stories - mostly Jamesian - in the near-decade since I posted that original remark. I've read most of them too. What little I can find out about "In Vitro" makes me want to read it but I'd have to get hold of SHADES OF DARKNESS to do that. |
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Post by Michael Connolly on Oct 20, 2018 12:13:58 GMT
I need to glance over it again to make sure I've got the details right. I've read a lot of stories - mostly Jamesian - in the near-decade since I posted that original remark. I've read most of them too. What little I can find out about "In Vitro" makes me want to read it but I'd have to get hold of SHADES OF DARKNESS to do that. Damn. The website of Ash-Tree Press that published SHADES OF DARKNESS is now inaccessible. It was open just a couple of days ago. |
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Post by Michael Connolly on Oct 20, 2018 12:15:18 GMT
I've read most of them too. What little I can find out about "In Vitro" makes me want to read it but I'd have to get hold of SHADES OF DARKNESS to do that. damn. The website of Ash-Tree Press that published SHADES OF DARKNESS is now inaccessible. It was open just a couple of days ago. Dem, why do my "Damns" appear with a small "d"? |
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Oct 21, 2018 14:09:47 GMT
In Vitro by Michael Cox
'To the memory of M.R. James 1862-1936'
Chrysostom College, Cambridge, Christmas Eve 1896 - When it comes to Professor Brabazon's turn to regale the 21st meeting of The Spook Story Society with an original tale of the supernatural, he opts to tell them of a series of events concerning a 'late and much lamented member of this august Society, John Devenish', a European authority on the subject of medieval painted glass. On the day of Devenish's somewhat mysterious death he had written to Brabazon, enclosing a narrative concerning the consequences of his visit to the cathedral city of Godchester. Here, in the ruins of a recently collapsed house on the cathedral precincts, Devenish had discovered a roundel of glass, depicting a vaulted bedchamber with a massive fireplace which seems to make the chamber glow with the cunningly depicted flames within. A sleeping figure lies within the bed, and a large black book rests in a lectern by the bedside, the volume sealed with a heavy brass clasp. There appear to be curious symbols concealed within the design of the room, and when the Dean allows Devenish to take the window into his custody, he sets to examining it more closely... only now he sees that the book is not sealed at all, but open, displaying a most sinister title, while closer examination and cleaning reveals a verse around the glass which might suggest a warning over removing it from its place in the house...
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elricc
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 100
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Post by elricc on Oct 21, 2018 16:28:14 GMT
I've just re read this today after seeing it on here, he takes all the MR James tropes and puts them together in a way that is very rich and enthralling. I did not enjoy his novel though, this for me is far better. He even used the landscape of Aldeburgh, with the long road with Marshes on one side and shingle on the other.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Oct 21, 2018 17:13:40 GMT
I did not enjoy his novel though, this for me is far better. I did enjoy The Meaning of Night, though it's not remotely Jamesian or even supernatural, of course. That said, its sequel, The Glass of Time, has some hints of a ghost story in it, as well as a character named Montagu R. Wraxall, who is clearly named in honour of MRJ and based on some of his characteristics. But I do regard In Vitro very highly as a distinct tribute to James, as well as an effective story in its own right, and Shades of Darkness is a very good anthology. It's a shame that In Vitro hasn't appeared anywhere else in print. I've no idea what happened to the Ash Tree Press site, but I'm not sure if it was even operating as a way of purchasing books lately, as the latest updates on the site seemed to have been quite a long time ago. |
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Post by Michael Connolly on Oct 22, 2018 12:22:00 GMT
In Vitro by Michael Cox 'To the memory of M.R. James 1862-1936'Chrysostom College, Cambridge, Christmas Eve 1896 - When it comes to Professor Brabazon's turn to regale the 21st meeting of The Spook Story Society with an original tale of the supernatural, he opts to tell them of a series of events concerning a 'late and much lamented member of this august Society, John Devenish', a European authority on the subject of medieval painted glass. On the day of Devenish's somewhat mysterious death he had written to Brabazon, enclosing a narrative concerning the consequences of his visit to the cathedral city of Godchester. Here, in the ruins of a recently collapsed house on the cathedral precincts, Devenish had discovered a roundel of glass, depicting a vaulted bedchamber with a massive fireplace which seems to make the chamber glow with the cunningly depicted flames within. A sleeping figure lies within the bed, and a large black book rests in a lectern by the bedside, the volume sealed with a heavy brass clasp. There appear to be curious symbols concealed within the design of the room, and when the Dean allows Devenish to take the window into his custody, he sets to examining it more closely... only now he sees that the book is not sealed at all, but open, displaying a most sinister title, while closer examination and cleaning reveals a verse around the glass which might suggest a warning over removing it from its place in the house... Thanks. I don't need to read it now! |
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Post by Michael Connolly on Oct 22, 2018 12:27:42 GMT
I did not enjoy his novel though, this for me is far better. I did enjoy The Meaning of Night, though it's not remotely Jamesian or even supernatural, of course. That said, its sequel, The Glass of Time, has some hints of a ghost story in it, as well as a character named Montagu R. Wraxall, who is clearly named in honour of MRJ and based on some of his characteristics. But I do regard In Vitro very highly as a distinct tribute to James, as well as an effective story in its own right, and Shades of Darkness is a very good anthology. It's a shame that In Vitro hasn't appeared anywhere else in print. I've no idea what happened to the Ash Tree Press site, but I'm not sure if it was even operating as a way of purchasing books lately, as the latest updates on the site seemed to have been quite a long time ago. From information I got from Barbara Roden years ago, Ash-Tree Press basically stopped operating when her husband Christopher had a heart attack. It meant the end of the Ghost Story Society and its magazine All Hallows. The last time I really looked most material from Ash-Tree Press and Calabash Press (its Holmesian imprint) was being published on Kindle. |
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Oct 22, 2018 12:36:50 GMT
In Vitro by Michael Cox 'To the memory of M.R. James 1862-1936'Chrysostom College, Cambridge, Christmas Eve 1896 - When it comes to Professor Brabazon's turn to regale the 21st meeting of The Spook Story Society with an original tale of the supernatural, he opts to tell them of a series of events concerning a 'late and much lamented member of this august Society, John Devenish', a European authority on the subject of medieval painted glass. On the day of Devenish's somewhat mysterious death he had written to Brabazon, enclosing a narrative concerning the consequences of his visit to the cathedral city of Godchester. Here, in the ruins of a recently collapsed house on the cathedral precincts, Devenish had discovered a roundel of glass, depicting a vaulted bedchamber with a massive fireplace which seems to make the chamber glow with the cunningly depicted flames within. A sleeping figure lies within the bed, and a large black book rests in a lectern by the bedside, the volume sealed with a heavy brass clasp. There appear to be curious symbols concealed within the design of the room, and when the Dean allows Devenish to take the window into his custody, he sets to examining it more closely... only now he sees that the book is not sealed at all, but open, displaying a most sinister title, while closer examination and cleaning reveals a verse around the glass which might suggest a warning over removing it from its place in the house... Thanks. I don't need to read it now! There's nothing in that synopsis that isn't revealed in the opening stages of the story. |
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