M.R. James said that sex had no place in a ghost story. But was he right? This episode we attempt to answer this question and more, as we cover The Nature of the Evidence by May Sinclair, a tale from 1923 about a couple who just want to enjoy t

Episode 97 – Mark Gatiss’s Lot 249

Jan 15th, 2024 59m 34s

Hold on to your mummy! This episode Mike and Will discuss Mark Gatiss’s recent Ghost Story for Christmas TV adaptation Lot 249, as well as the Arthur Conan Doyle short story it is based on. Show notes: Watch it online! (BBC iPlayer) If you are

Episode 96 – The Real and the Counterfeit by Louisa Baldwin

Dec 21st, 2023 47m 20s

This episode, Mike and Will grab their literary toboggans and gallop joyously out into the snow, only to be hit in the face by a terrifying fictional snowball in the form of Louisa Baldwin’s The Real and the Counterfeit! Big thanks as ever to D

Episode 95 – The Weird of the Walfords by Louisa Baldwin

Jul 2nd, 2023 1h

Who would win in a fight between a man and a bed? Find the answer to this question and more in our new episode on The Weird of the Walfords by Louisa Baldwin! Also, if you like emotionally-repressed Victorian husbands, you will not leave disapp

Episode 94 – Exploring Eleanor Scott with Vicky Margree and Dan Orrells

May 21st, 2023 43m 9s

This episode we speak with two experts to better understand Eleanor Scott and her story Randall’s Round, Dr Vicky Margree and Prof Dan Orrells. We discuss what’s known about Eleanor Scott, her time at Oxford University in the early 1900s and th

Episode 93 – Count Magnus Awakens

Jan 8th, 2023 48m 56s

A BBC Ghost Story for Christmas is thankfully as traditional as quaffing eggnog and leaving out a carrot for Rudolph. And what a treat, as this year Count Magnus made the Black Pilgrimage onto our screens. But has Mark Gatiss been naughty or n

Episode 92 – Randalls Round by Eleanor Scott

Dec 12th, 2022 1h 7m

This episode Mike and Will explore freaky folk-dance, village-based villainy and Cotswold chicanery in Eleanor Scott’s awesome Jamesian folk-horror tale Randalls Round! Big thanks to Kirsty Woodfield for providing the readings for this episode.

Episode 91 - Let Loose by Mary Cholmondeley

Nov 5th, 2022 1h 14m

In the first episode of Season 4 tm, Mike and Will are delighted by Let Loose by Mary Cholmondeley, a tale of crypts, clergymen and crikey, what is that in the dog’s mouth? Big thanks to Jim Moon for allowing us to use extracts from his excelle

Episode 90 – Right Through My Hair by Noel Boston

Sep 17th, 2022 1h 2m

Join Will and Mike for haunted cathedrals, lecherous minor canons and hair-based horrors in Noel Boston’s ‘Right Through My Hair’! Big thanks to Debbie Wedge for providing the readings for this episode. Show notes Noel Boston (The Haunted Libra

Episode 89 – Cushi

Jun 18th, 2022 43m 51s

Open your hymn books to episode 89, as we’re back in church for Christopher Woodforde’s “Cushi”: a tale of capering cats, sabotaged surplices and vengeful vergers. Don’t lose your head! Show notes: Christopher Woodforde studied at Peterhouse, C

Episode 88 - Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book Revisited

Mar 22nd, 2022 1h 30m

Join Mike and Will for a special 10th anniversary (give or take a few months) special in which your now-aged hosts look back over a decade of M.R. James podcasting and return to the story that started it all, Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook! You can

Episode 87 – Mark Gatiss’s The Mezzotint

Jan 2nd, 2022 41m 42s

In this episode, Mike and Will share their thoughts on Mark Gatiss’s recent TV adaptation of M.R. James’s The Mezzotint. Join us for some monocle-popping, mustache-bristling, spine-chilling fun! Show notes A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Mezzo

Episode 86 – Lucky’s Grove by H.R. Wakefield

Dec 21st, 2021 58m 9s

Ho ho, and indeed ho! In this special festive episode, Mike and Will pull on their wellies and wander straight into Lucky’s Grove by H.R. Wakefield. But who’s that hiding behind the Christmas tree? Big thanks to Julia Morgan for allowing us to

Episode 85 – The Tudor Chimney by A.N.L. Munby

Aug 2nd, 2021 1h

This episode Mike and Will grab their torches and disappear up ‘The Tudor Chimney’ by A.N.L. Munby. But what is that shape moving up above? Meh, it’s probably nothing. Thanks to Debbie Wedge for providing the readings for this episode! In this

Episode 84 – Bosworth Summit Pound

May 29th, 2021 51m 56s

Ahoy there listeners! Be grabbin’ yer nautical gear for a cruise on the high seas of Leicestershire, with LTC Rolt and his story Bosworth Summit Pound. (Enough. It’s set on a canal – ed) What terrors might await us on England’s peaceful inl

Episode 83 – A Room in a Rectory

Mar 6th, 2021 1h 10m

This episode Will and Mike hitch up their cassocks, pack their prayer books and head to ‘Southshire’ to open ‘A Room in a Rectory’ by Sir Andrew Caldecott! Big thanks to Kirsty who provided the readings for this episode, and to Garry Platt who

Episode 82 – Echoes from the Abbey

Dec 24th, 2020 1h 1m

This week Will and Mike don their warmest Christmas jumpers for dinner with Dr James and the troubled incumbents of Medborough Abbey, in the company of Sheila Hodgson. What could be more seasonal than a cracker, eh? Oh the fun that tumbles out

Episode 81 – The Demoniac Goat by M.P. Dare

Dec 3rd, 2020 1h 33m

This episode Mike and Will brace themselves for the ‘appalling stench of goat, cordite, sulphur, and burning human flesh’ in M.P. Dare’s The Demoniac Goat. Lovely! Also in this episode we speak to actor Robert Lloyd Parry and publisher Brian J.

Episode 80 – The Sundial by R.H. Malden

Oct 30th, 2020 1h 6m

This Halloween Mike and Will stroll out into the garden to take a look at The Sundial by R.H. Malden. But who is that lurking in the bushes? Thanks to Kirsty for providing excellent readings for this episode! Show notes: Nine Ghosts by R.H. Mal

Episode 79 – The Seventeenth Hole at Duncaster

Oct 6th, 2020 57m 25s

Today we head to East Anglia for a round of golf in the company of enthusiastic James fan H.R. Wakefield. No whistling ‘ere though – you might just wake up something nasty… Wakefield published seven volumes of ghost stories between 1928 and 196

Episode 78 – Brother John’s Bequest by Arthur Gray

Jul 2nd, 2020 44m 16s

This episode Mike and Will travel back to 16th century Cambridge to get acquainted with a rather unsavory guest at Jesus College in ‘Brother John’s Bequest‘ by Arthur Gray. Booze, burials and bell-book-and-candle are the order of the day here,

Episode 77 – The Man with the Roller by E.G. Swain

May 7th, 2020 1h 2m

This episode Mike and Will put on their dancing shoes and head out to the lawn, only to encounter The Man with the Roller by E.G. Swain! Massive thanks to podcaster Jim Moon of hypnogoria.com for letting us use extracts from his reading of this

Episode 76 – How Fear Departed From the Long Gallery

Mar 29th, 2020 58m

We liven up our social distancing by finishing off the Benson boys, with Fred’s How Fear Departed From the Long Gallery. Dirty Dick gets his comeuppance for a murderous deed, but can the ghosts of his victims be laid to rest? Trigger warning f

Episode 75 – The Traveller by R.H. Benson

Feb 9th, 2020 58m 54s

This episode explores some ecclesiastical terrors in R.H. Benson’s ‘The Traveller’. It was ‘too ecclesiastical’ for M.R. James, but will Mike and Will find something to enjoy in this tale of perturbed priests, creepy confessionals and historica

Ep74 – Review of Martin’s Close on BBC4

Jan 6th, 2020 33m 17s

Excitement abounds in the podcast house as Big Santy C leaves us a new BBC Ghost Story for Christmas, courtesy of BBC4 and Mr Mark Gatiss! Will and Mike offer their humble thoughts on this festive treat. Show notes: A clutch of reviews of Mart