Crumpets and sherry dear subscriber? Would you like to pull your chair closer to the roaring log fire? Are you comfortable with your slippered feet up on that pouffe? Well, in that case John and Luke are here to lead you into grave supernatural danger, but don’t worry, they’ll have you back by the hearth before the witching hour. Regular listeners will know of Luke’s terror of horror, and of John’s never ceasing campaign to get more of the stuff onto the site, so this month, we can announce a victory for the latter as the pair delve into scholar and author Montague Rhodes James’ first published anthology, containing some of the most celebrated ghost stories in the English language. But Luke reveals he actually finds much here to love, relating heavily to the rich metaphysical life described by a preacher’s son, makes a sturdy attempt to rescue the author back from the “dolmens for goalposts” folk horror crew, while also sensing some turbulence in the fast moving waters of the writer’s sexuality. John claims Monty as a “grumpy modernist” whose work vibrates with anxiety at the huge changes afoot at the dawn of the 20th century and makes a case for the way we think about ghosts always keeping pace with society and culture itself. And the pair are in firm agreement that M.R. James should be more widely celebrated as a comic writer, something he had a particular skill for… especially when talking about golf.
There is a wide-ranging chat (which somehow remains entirely on topic) which takes in the Staplehurst Railway Disaster of 1865, the erotic paintings of Austin Osman Spare and how Scooby Doo revived the Victorian ghost story. And the pair even have time to recount a pleasant and all too rare evening out enjoying the launch of Richard Foster’s new book, The Punk Rock Birdwatching Club.
Thanks to John Tatlock for putting this together and to all our subscribers for funding our podcasts and wider editorial. We are 90% funded by subscribers and there’s always room in our haunted Victorian tomb for more – if you’re not yet a subscriber you can sign up via the link on the paywall below. Subscribers can now listen to this podcast on the site past the paywall, as well as through their podcast feeds. We’ll be back next month with a discussion on two of PJ Harvey’s finest LPs.
Low Culture Podcast: Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary, by M.R. James
This month John and Luke head all the way back to 1904 to experience the thrills, chills and outright horrors of a modern compendium of ghoulish tales
