The Hand of M R James by Sarah Tolmie

Classic Ghost Stories

Tony Walker

Fiction, Drama, Science Fiction

4.9 • 686 Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2023

⏱️ 99 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's been a long time since I’ve read a story by a living author. This story, “The Hand of M. R. James,” was written by Canadian author Sarah Tolmie, and it deals with a very strange occurrence—you may call it a haunting—that happens to an academic during the COVID pandemic. After the story, I ask Sarah about herself, about this story, and about her book Sacraments for the Unfit, from which collection, The Hand of M. R. James is taken. You can learn more about Sarah from her website Sarah Tolmie http://sarahtolmie.ca/ You can read reviews of the the book Sacraments For The Unfit and find links to buy it via this link http://sarahtolmie.ca/sacramentsReviews.html New Patreon Request Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! Start for FREE Support the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Hand of M.R. James.
0:14.6	By Sarah Tolme.
0:17.4	I think it will be seen from what has been said that my subject is one which depends for its
0:24.6	actuality upon the accumulation of a great number of small facts.
0:29.6	There is, of course, a broad historical background, no less than a whole history of
0:33.7	Western Europe since the period of the barbarian invasions.
0:43.3	M.R. James, The Wanderings and Homes of Manuscripts, 1919. It wasn't until she put in her application for full professor in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic
0:50.3	that Helena realized that the neatly pencilled notes she had read in grad school accompanying
0:56.0	this or that manuscript had been written by M.R. James, the famous ghost storywriter.
1:02.0	This was 25 years after she'd left Cambridge herself.
1:06.0	Nobody had ever discussed the other life of the famous codicologist as an author of weird fiction.
1:12.5	Likely, it was embarrassing.
1:14.7	Still, she suspected that someone must have at least mentioned it at some time, as she had a cat
1:20.6	named Montague.
1:22.1	It's a good name for a cat, Montague, and never Monty.
1:26.7	Who could possibly have mentioned it? She had been surrounded by
1:31.2	medievalists and had certainly had no inkling then that anyone who taught her read 20th
1:36.9	century fiction, not even such turn-of-the-century productions as those of M.R. James. The
1:43.7	likeliest candidate was the Dapper Dickensian
1:46.2	fellow who had taught paleography, James' own discipline. It was the kind of everyday fact, drawn
1:53.0	from everyday life that he might have dropped in. He was better adjusted than most, he was even
1:58.6	married. It was not impossible to imagine him experimenting with
	...

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