Considered by many to be the most terrifying writer in English, M. R. James was nonetheless an unlikely producer of ghost-stories. An eminent scholar who spent his entire adult life in the academic surroundings of Eton and Cambridge, his classic supernatural tales have lost none of their power to unsettle and disturb. They draw on the terrors of the everyday, in which documents and objects unleash terrible forces, often in closed rooms and night-time settings where imagination runs riot. Lonely country houses, remote inns, ancient churches or the manuscript collections of great libraries provide settings for unbearable menace, from creatures seeking retribution and harm.

Stories that were first read aloud in James’s study late on Christmas Eve have the power to haunt us still. This book presents all of James’s published ghost stories, including the unforgettable “Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” and “Casting the Runes”.

The editor of this collected edition of M.R. James’ ghost stories, Darryl Jones of Trinity College Dublin, here presents an audio guide to the man and his work for the newcomer and seasoned ghost-story aficionado alike. To listen to the guide, click on the appropriate link below.

1. James would often read his ghost stories to a select group of listeners in his rooms in King’s College, Cambridge at midnight on Christmas Eve. Darryl Jones sets the scene here. [2:30]

2. M. R. James was born in 1862 and spent his earliest years in Suffolk. Darryl Jones sketches in his background here. [1:54]

3. James spent much of his life in academic institutions, first Eton College and then King’s College, Cambridge. What effect did this have on him as a man and a writer? Click here. [2:50]

4. I asked Darryl if the ghost story was an innately conservative genre. To hear his answer, click here. [2:20]

5. The Victorian age showed great interest in the psychic and supernatural, and Cambridge was something of a centre for this interest. To hear what M. R. James made of this, click here. [2:05]

6. Darryl Jones argues in his introduction that the sexual anxieties which M. R. James’s stories display have been largely overlooked by previous critics. I asked him where he saw manifestations of these anxieties in the stories. Click here. [3:16]

7. Do James’s ghost stories develop throughout his career, or are they variations on a theme which he establishes early on? Click here. [1:52]

8. Finally I asked Darryl Jones how highly he would rate M. R. James as a writer of supernatural fiction. Click here. [0:36]