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Post by Michael Connolly on Mar 10, 2020 13:39:46 GMT
Have been expecting this! Can't wait to read the double review! Not quite as variant in their opinions as I'd hoped (both liked it), but still good stuff. Even after his misfire with Dracula (which is already fading from my mind), I'd still love to see Mark Gatiss tackle "Count Magnus".
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Post by Michael Connolly on Mar 14, 2020 14:20:28 GMT
Very well done, James! Thanks also to Ro and Darroll, Mark & Jo. Am looking forward to reading/ commenting on this one. James Doig [ed.] - Ghosts & Scholars #38 (Haunted Library, March 2020) Cover illustration Dan McGachey Martin's CloseContemporary advertisement for the 'Cheylesmore' sociable tricycle used by M.R. James in 1884. Image courtesy of Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. James Doig - Editorial James Doig - M.R. James News Rick Kennett - Jamesian Podcasts #8 Ro Pardoe - Lady Wardrop's Notes
Fiction C. J. Faraday - The Advent Visitor Margaret Payne - The Snows of Yesteryear Katherine Haynes - The Stalls of Barchester Theatre
Articles Jim Bryant - In the Tracks of M. R. James: Series Introduction In the Tracks of M. R. James 1: By Double Tricycle to Auxerre 22 June - 11 July 1884
Jamesian Notes & Queries Norman Darwen - Yew or Ash?
Reviews Tartan Terror: Robert Lloyd Parry at Interpeffray, Nov. 2019 (reviewed by Helen Grant) Martin's Close by M. R. James : A Ghost Story for Christmas (reviewed by C. E. Ward) Martin's Close by M. R. James : A Ghost Story for Christmas (reviewed by Dan McGachey) When Shadows Gather by Mark Chislett (reviewed by David Harris) Legionnaire by C. E. Ward (reviewed by Antonio Monteiro) Green Tea by J. S. Le Fanu (reviewed by Patrick Petterson) The Pale Illuminations: Stories by Peter Bell, Mark Valentine, Reggie Oliver & Derek John ed. Robert Morgan (reviewed by Roger Johnson) About "In the Tracks of M. R. James", that business of him and his friends washing themselves in a lake after a hard sweaty day on their tricycle. The dirty beasts! This creates a worse image than the front cover!
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Post by Michael Connolly on Mar 16, 2020 10:28:32 GMT
About MRJ's admitted "morning dips" in mill ponds and roadside streams etc: it's a wonder he lived as long as he did.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 30, 2020 7:01:04 GMT
Three weeks - and one very different world - later;
Will start with the fiction, which, as is almost invariably the case * , is extremely enjoyable.
C. J. Faraday - The Advent Visitor: Christmas at Cambridge. A drowned man returns the grimoire he borrowed from Professor John Fanshawe during their misspent student days. Guilt, a pact with the devil, and a grim case of history repeats.
Margaret Payne - The Snows of Yesteryear: The ghosts of those buried in the adjoining graveyard gather in the church to celebrate Christmas.
Katherine Haynes - The Stalls of Barchester Theatre: Two centuries after the death of Archdeacon Haynes, his descendant, Heath, a stage magician, discovers the tiny theatre in the shadow of the Cathedral. On his initial visit, Heath meets Miriam, the theatre owner and one time assistant to the late Gontarsky the Great. After a cursory audition, Miriam suggests they perform as a double act. Heath readily agrees. The show is an overnight sensation. For added spice, Heath suggests they incorporate a knife throwing routine. Miriam is duly strapped to the revolving wheel .....
All is well until Gontarsky and feline familiar attend a performance, whereupon Miriam proves that truly she is assistant like no other.
(*. This reader found a story in G & S #14 heavy going ....)
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Post by ropardoe on Mar 30, 2020 8:02:09 GMT
Three weeks - and one very different world - later; Will start with the fiction, which, as is almost invariably the case * , is extremely enjoyable. ( *. This reader found a story in G & S #14 heavy going ....) Go on - tell us which one!
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Post by dem bones on Mar 30, 2020 17:04:05 GMT
Go on - tell us which one! No names, no pack drill, it was the late Alan W. Lear's "A Little, Little Grave," etc. A neat story as I remember it, but , on this occasion, seemed to me that Mr. Lear troweled on the Jamesian flourishes to the point of irritation. I'm sure there was a story in another early-ish number that I disliked at the time, simply because I couldn't understand it. Genuinely can't remember which one or by whom.
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Post by ropardoe on Mar 30, 2020 17:48:21 GMT
Go on - tell us which one! No names, no pack drill, it was the late Alan W. Lear's "A Little, Little Grave," etc. A neat story as I remember it, but , on this occasion, seemed to me that Mr. Lear troweled on the Jamesian flourishes to the point of irritation. I'm sure there was a story in another early-ish number that I disliked at the time, simply because I couldn't understand it. Genuinely can't remember which one or by whom. I don't even remember that one, I must admit. Mr Lear and I fell out (I don't appreciate being told to f*** off and die!), so I've tended to subconsciously forget everything of his! Anyway, I'm relieved it's not the story also from G&S 14 which I'm reprinting in the Ghosts & Scholars Book of Mazes (Rick Kennett's "The Outsider").
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