Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
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‘At first you saw only a mass of coarse, matted black hair; presently it was seen that this covered a body of fearful thinness, almost a skeleton, but with the muscles standing out like wires’
M.R. James’ ghost stories are brimming with delicate horror. They take place in the quiet corners of churches, and between the dusty shelves of esteemed college libraries. But when Professor Parkin discovers a whistle in a Templar ruin, or Sir Richard Fell inherits a country manor with a horrifying history, malevolent forces are unleashed. Something half-glimpsed, something not of this world, is preparing to disturb the silence.
Having terrified generations since its first publication in 1904, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary is a collection that will haunt the reader’s imagination long after the lights have gone out.
M. R. James
Montague Rhodes James was born in 1862 at Goodnestone Parsonage, Kent, where his father was a curate, but the family moved soon afterwards to Great Livermere in Suffolk. James attended Eton College and later King's College Cambridge where he won many awards and scholarships. From 1894 to 1908 he was Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and from 1905 to 1918 was Provost of King's College. In 1913, he became Vice-Chancellor of the University for two years. In 1918 he was installed as Provost of Eton. A distinguished medievalist and scholar of international status, James published many works on biblical and historical antiquarian subjects. He was awarded the Order of Merit in 1930. His ghost story writing began almost as a divertissement from his academic work and as a form of entertainment for his colleagues. His first collection, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary was published in 1904. He never married and died in 1936.
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