Ghosts and Scholars issue 42

[Michael Connolly]

Mar 10, 2022 12:49:58 GMT dem said:

Arrived midday.

Caroll Tyrrell [ed.] - Ghosts & Scholars #42 (Haunted Library, March 2022)

Rosemary Pardoe
Front: Angel: Back Arachne

Caroll Tyrrell - Editorial
Rick Kennett - Jamesian Podcasts
Rosemary Pardoe - Lady Wardrop's Notes
Jim Bryant - In the Tracks of M. R. James: V.

Fiction
M. R. James & John Linwood Grant - Speaker Lenthall's Tomb
Victoria Day - Hadesons Hall Folly

Reviews
Benjamin Harris, Eleanor Scott's Randall's Round
Katherine Haynes, Peter Bell's Sacred and Profane: Seven Strange Tales
Peter Bell, Joyce Carol Oates's The Ruins of Contracouer and other Presences
Tina Rath, Paul Finch [ed.], Terror Tales of the Scottish Lowlands
Antonio Monteiro, Ghosts of the Chit-Chat, narrated by Robert Lloyd Parry
C. E. Ward, The Mezzotint, directed by Mark Gatiss
Parrick Petterson, Ron Weighell's King Satyr
Rosemary Pardoe, Simon Loxley's A Geography of Horror: The Ghost Stories of M. R. James and the Suffolk Landscape (A Travel Guide)

According to Rosemary on the M.R. James Appreciation Society on Facebook Ghosts & Scholars 42 went out of print prior to publication. Luckily, I paid my subscription two weeks ago! Next time I'll pay my renewal immediately.

If there is sufficient demand, will there be a reprint?

[ropardoe]

Mar 14, 2022 12:08:47 GMT Michael Connolly said:

Mar 10, 2022 12:49:58 GMT dem said:

Arrived midday.

Caroll Tyrrell [ed.] - Ghosts & Scholars #42 (Haunted Library, March 2022)

Rosemary Pardoe
Front: Angel: Back Arachne

Caroll Tyrrell - Editorial
Rick Kennett - Jamesian Podcasts
Rosemary Pardoe - Lady Wardrop's Notes
Jim Bryant - In the Tracks of M. R. James: V.

Fiction
M. R. James & John Linwood Grant - Speaker Lenthall's Tomb
Victoria Day - Hadesons Hall Folly

Reviews
Benjamin Harris, Eleanor Scott's Randall's Round
Katherine Haynes, Peter Bell's Sacred and Profane: Seven Strange Tales
Peter Bell, Joyce Carol Oates's The Ruins of Contracouer and other Presences
Tina Rath, Paul Finch [ed.], Terror Tales of the Scottish Lowlands
Antonio Monteiro, Ghosts of the Chit-Chat, narrated by Robert Lloyd Parry
C. E. Ward, The Mezzotint, directed by Mark Gatiss
Parrick Petterson, Ron Weighell's King Satyr
Rosemary Pardoe, Simon Loxley's A Geography of Horror: The Ghost Stories of M. R. James and the Suffolk Landscape (A Travel Guide)

According to Rosemary on the M.R. James Appreciation Society on Facebook Ghosts & Scholars 42 went out of print prior to publication. Luckily, I paid my subscription two weeks ago! Next time I'll pay my renewal immediately.

If there is sufficient demand, will there be a reprint?

There can't be more than 250 copies for copyright reasons (some of the images - not the covers - are used with this proviso). 

[Michael Connolly]

Mar 14, 2022 14:46:10 GMT ropardoe said:

Mar 14, 2022 12:08:47 GMT Michael Connolly said:

According to Rosemary on the M.R. James Appreciation Society on Facebook Ghosts & Scholars 42 went out of print prior to publication. Luckily, I paid my subscription two weeks ago! Next time I'll pay my renewal immediately.

If there is sufficient demand, will there be a reprint?

There can't be more than 250 copies for copyright reasons (some of the images - not the covers - are used with this proviso). 

Oh!

[David A. Riley]

I ordered a copy on the 13th and received it in the post today. Looking forward now to reading it.

[humgoo]

M. R. James & John Linwood Grant - Speaker Lenthall's Tomb: Mr Cave and his son, both confirmed Gothicists, are hell-bent on getting rid of "that hideous erection of Speaker Lenthall's" in St. Mary's Church, the only obstacle being ninety-year-old Mrs Lenthall, the last of the line but not someone to be trifled with. Mrs Lenthall dies soon enough after a face-off between her and Mr Cave and Co. (consisting of Cave senior and junior, the local rector as well as an architect), during which young Mr Cave shows his sharp tongue, "All I can say is that you, Madam Lenthall, may be very proud of your ancestor the Speaker, but most of us would rather not have an old ratter and trimmer in the family. And another thing I can tell you is that it will give me the greatest pleasure to knock that hideous tomb to bits as soon as - as I can do it." He's to regret that.

Cave Jr. deserves more than just a scare, but agree that the two female characters in it are top-notch.

Victoria Day - Hadesons Hall Folly: Reenactment of an ancient myth in South Yorkshire. The arrival of a child bride from Greece is followed by a no-show of springtime.

I like the variety of Ms Day's stories (have also recently read her when-seafood-attacks tale in They're Out to Get You).

[dem]

Sorry it took a while. Have been otherwise preoccupied so set #42 aside until mind clear enough to give issue the attention it deserves.

M. R. James & John Linwood Grant - Speaker Lenthall's Tomb: Wealthy clergyman Mr. Cave and son Harry (23, Trinity, Oxford) are bent on renovating the chapel of St. Mary's, Burford. They are especially keen to be rid of the hideous marble tomb of the Regicide, Speaker Lenthall, but permission must first be obtained from his octogenarian great grand-daughter, Elizabeth, scourge of the almshouse and last of the line. Madam Lenthall takes delight in flatly refuses a bribe and, unimpressed by Harry's short temper, advises that, should they dare disturb the monument when she's dead, they are likely to receive an unwelcome visitor.

Can only agree that young Miss Mary Cave and, especially, Madam Lenthall, steal the limelight.

Victoria Day - Hadesons Hall Folly: South Yorkshire, 1830s. The Hadesons first courted the displeasure of the Furies when the seventeenth century baronet erected a "truly hideous" faux 'Greek' temple in the grounds. To add insult to injury, among its nine pillars, an authentic marble column, surely pilfered. Now, much to the astonishment of all, Sir Peter, well advanced into his seventies, has dashed home from Greece with a desperately unhappy teenage bride, the former Cora Boltson, whom he treats abysmally. Their arrival coincides with that of a statue of Demeter, sender unknown, and the first of several threatening letters demanding the return of "my child ....."

I so enjoy Victoria Day's stories - let's hope we get to see a collection sooner rather than later!

The reviews are, as ever, indispensable, no matter if there is little or no chance of the reader obtaining all of the books under consideration. I particularly enjoyed Tina Rath's blow-by-blow analysis of Mr. Finch's Terror Tales of the Scottish Lowlands, Benjamin Harris on the British Library Randall's Round reissue, and Ro's not entirely favourable verdict on A Geography of Horror. Lady Wardrop's Notes are devoted to dogs in the fiction of cat-loving MR James, the latest leg of whose marathon cycling tour (a prolonged Easter vacation through March and April 1902) includes visits to Bayonne, a sunbathe in st. Croix churchyard, a return to the "stupid little cathedral" at Barres and punctures aplenty.

[ropardoe]

Apr 2, 2022 8:59:58 GMT dem said:

Sorry it took a while. Have been otherwise preoccupied so set #42 aside until mind clear enough to give issue the attention it deserves.

M. R. James & John Linwood Grant - Speaker Lenthall's Tomb: Wealthy clergyman Mr. Cave and son Harry (23, Trinity, Oxford) are bent on renovating the chapel of St. Mary's, Burford. They are especially keen to be rid of the hideous marble tomb of the Regicide, Speaker Lenthall, but permission must first be obtained from his octogenarian great grand-daughter, Elizabeth, scourge of the almshouse and last of the line. Madam Lenthall takes delight in flatly refuses a bribe and, unimpressed by Harry's short temper, advises that, should they dare disturb the monument when she's dead, they are likely to receive an unwelcome visitor.

Can only agree that young Miss Mary Cave and, especially, Madam Lenthall, steal the limelight.

Aside from the great Lady Wardrop herself, I think these are pretty much the two best women in MRJ's stories.

[helrunar]

Thanks for these notes on the stories, Kev. I'm really sorry I delayed sending my payment to Mr Valentine and thus missed out the chance to score a copy of that rarissime zine. Both the stories sound excellent. 

cheers, Steve

[davidjhowe]

Any chance someone could send me a copy/scan/photo of the review of the last TERROR TALES that's in the edition?

Thanks so much!

[e-mail]