I can remember when I was a young lad and grandfather reading the most excellent tales of M R James to me by the light of the bed lamp. He'd sit in an old rocking chair and bring the stories to life with perfect inflection of speech and just the right amount of drama. It seems looking back as if he always had such a love for the literary that I didn't recognize it as a child. He was an excellent fisherman and violin player. And a teller of tales. And he loved me and I'll always love him. He passed away May 31, 1982 at 96 years young.

@tallandhandsome29

3 жыл бұрын

MWM Manning What a superb memory. Lucky you.

@jethro69tull

Жыл бұрын

What a lovely Comment. Beautifully said.. You painted a perfect picture for others to appreciate. You might like the Christopher Lee Ghost Stories for Christmas.

@13cairney

Жыл бұрын

How lucky you were.

@PumaLyn

8 ай бұрын

You are really blessed to have such happy memories. I envy you. 😊

I love this story. Its become part of my Christmas tradition to listen to it every Christmas eve.

This is as good as anything M.R.James wrote. It's actually typical of his style. Wonderful tale.

Love old time radio programs. It activates the mental pictures, and I always enjoy a good ghost story. Well Done !

@montaguejames5348

8 жыл бұрын

+David Arnce Glad you enjoyed it David. Have a good Christmas.

@anthonykinsella2579

7 жыл бұрын

David Arnce f

I completely understand the "fettish" with books. I suffer from it too.

@bittybitty8233

3 жыл бұрын

meeee toooooooooo !!!!!!!!

@JudeNance

2 жыл бұрын

So do I

I love old classic ghost stories especially with a British accent! the voice sets the spooky mood !!! especially a voice like the actor Vincent Price it was Perfect for all horror stories!!!!

Marvellous story by M James, quite wonderfully narrated by all the actors. I felt I was accompanying the players immediately on this atmospheric and intriguing supernatural adventure. Splendid. Thank you. Xxx

Christmas at King's College. Sat beside the fire, glass of port in hand, sat at the feet of M R James. What a supreme treat. I cannot think of anything better.

@lauly33

3 жыл бұрын

SITTING...!! Not ‘Sat’...Aaargh

Radio drama at its best creating its own haunting images, and what better choice than M.R. James. Superb! Thank you for uploading this.

@mikelheron20

7 жыл бұрын

Except of course it isn't by M. R. James.

Inspired casting of David Collings, I've listened to his great readings of MR James Audiobooks hundreds of times, recognised his voice straight away.

Absolutely brilliant production. I love to listen to these in my office...it transports me to the times and places that these stories were written about! Also, listen to Sir Christopher Lee's Ghost Stories For Christmas. Wonderful portrayal of M R James himself relating a story to young men eager to hear the master himself!

Only the British know how to write a truly great ghost tale!!!!

I have read all of his stories as well as his works on Medieval castles and abbeys. Reading his other writings makes me appreciate his supernatural tales. His scholarly works are as well written as his ghost stories.

i can listen to MR James stories over and over - especially the way they are produced in Britain. it's been a few months and it's still as fresh as ever. actors were supurb in this radio play. . .

Absolutely amazing story!! The audio is creating a whole movie in my head!!

Delightful! and quite in the spirit of my favorite ghost story writer (as well as an eminent scholar), M.R. James.

Excellent, M R James is so creative with a wonderful command of language and how it might create an atmosphere

Superb production of one of master supernatural story writer M.R.James tales before bedtime. You feel as if you’re drawn into the story. Well done all concerned.

I love these plays, cannot get enough........More please

That is the best version of the Holly and the Ivy I ever heard.

Really enjoying this story, having professional voices reading the stories , as opposed to 'whispered' [agonising] or robotic, or very slow readings is marvellous. Thanks! P.S, New Year's eve 2015, I noticed in the streetlight gloom, on an old gatepost in East Sheen, SW14 the faded words ''The Planes Stables '' showing where overpainting wore off..This sent me on a google fest, and I found out that M.R James had gone to school a couple of hundred yards away, at an old house [Temple Grove] which he had used as a model for ''A School Story'' . Have always loved M.R. James's stories, and was fascinated to learn thast he had trodden the area which I knew so well- and is now sadly very much built up compared to the semi rural Jamesian days.

@2msvalkyrie529

2 жыл бұрын

Agreed ! I hate to sound ungrateful but some of the Librivox readings are just awful ! Simply torture to listen to . Sorry but has to be said ..

@graceshankles9826

2 жыл бұрын

2

@Oakleaf700

2 жыл бұрын

@@2msvalkyrie529 Paid Actors are have likely been trained in enunciation and reading stuff so it sounds natural and doesn't grate. Martin Jarvis, anyone? I love his readings. I'd be hopeless at reading {Unless a bedtime story to a child}, but even amongst 'Professional' readers, some are better than others.

@-Reagan

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for sharing such an interesting little story of happenstance! As for the story - You would probably enjoy listening to the BBC radio ghost stories and classics! They did a wonderful series on Lovecraft and then there are the MR James ghost stories for Christmas - a whole series here on KZread. If you would like me to add a few links for you to simply click to take you to the stories, I certainly will be happy to, and I have a few playlists ready made of good stories like these. I’ll make them public if you’re interested, (or anyone else who happens to be reading this would like them). Cheers from America!

@Oakleaf700

24 күн бұрын

@@-Reagan Thanks! You Tube didn't notify me of your reply.

This is a marvelous radio drama. The story and voice-acting are all top-notch. A radio drama of the first order. Thank you for the upload!

I love listening to these ghostly tales, I've never heard of M.R James until now such a treat. I've listened to them over and over I never tire of them. Thank you for posting them.

@isobelharwood7042

7 жыл бұрын

Shawn Alain Gray-Alston gy

@giftsvampen

7 жыл бұрын

I think you would like "A Podcast to the Curious - The M.R. James Podcast"

@2msvalkyrie529

5 жыл бұрын

@ Shawn Try some Agatha Christie - Poirot - radio dramas next . Very addictive !

@aaronpage8428

4 жыл бұрын

You might like E.F Benson’s stories as well. He was a student of James and actually attended the readings of ghost stories that this story is based on. Richard Crowest reads his stories brilliantly.

@jerribee1

4 жыл бұрын

If you haven't already read it, you should get a copy of "The Collected Ghost Stories of M.R.James."

Bravo! Well done. Bedtime stories at their finest. Lovely voice.

excellent - I've listened to this over and over - thank you for posting.

Most enjoyable tale, perfect for a cold afternoon by the fire

I've only just found this, but should you read this I just want to say, it was wonderful & all the acting SUPERB !! TY.

@powerslave6944

5 жыл бұрын

kitty baby that’s what I intend to do to read this but here’s my problem; I can’t seem to find this story in any of M.R. James books where can I find this story in book form? I can’t seem to find this in fact I’m beginning to doubt this was even M.R. James ghost story.

Absolutely love this and I love how it kept the introduction, sets it up beautifully. 👍

Such an enthralling story! Thank you for sharing! This is one of the very best!

love old story's radio drama, wonderful

Very good . Anything with M R James s name attached , whether by him or about him is good enough for me .

Beautifully done! Just loved the way this story was narratively acted out.

These are wonderful tales.....thanks for sharing this with others!

Genuinely fantastic story and great voice acting. Always a bit odd though how some people just DON'T get scared of ghosts, the house keeper seemed to be utterly immune! :)

I loved this story. Thanks for sharing. Would love to hear many more 👍

Loved this ...Thank you.

Thanks for sharing this wonderful ghost story

This was superb. Wish they would do more of these.

Excellent, thanks .

I love this story and the narratives. Wonderful.

Beautifully acted version of this wonderful story , hard to have a favourite of MRJames but after Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You my Lad I do love the atmosphere of " Mist and Phantoms" about this one.

@paysonterhune290

5 жыл бұрын

lost hearts for me

Fantastic...thank you!

Christopher Lee reading anything but especially m r James just puts me there right on awesome man I miss him X DJ Cromer X

@mrbenmears

5 жыл бұрын

I met him strolling down the kings rd in Chelsea , around 1987, he was truly an imposing figure,and extremely amiable,in a dark ankle length overcoat,leather gloved and flat cap, a deep resonating voice,,I very nearly splashed him in holy water and ran for my young life....

Listening for the second time this week. Fantastic, subscribed

Excellent story! Thank you!

Kings College choir is the best, lucky enough to be invited to sit with the choir one evensong

@dew2912

7 жыл бұрын

Katie Millard. (YES Katie! I love Vincent Price's voice too!)

Awesome story :)

M.R.James the master of penning the ghostly macabre....and with a rich vocabulary in his descriptions of atmospheric terror and threat.....his writings intoxicate you and suffocate you with the unexplained and the spiritual.....

That was spooky. Brilliant acting. Thank you

excellent drama , thanks a lot for uploading , good job

Btavo! Excellent stuff.

An excellent story!

Absolutely brilliant!

Great!

Nice. Good story and performance.

Outstanding!

Yes. Atmospheric enough. But a damp squib of an ending. About as terrifying as an episode of Gardner's Question Time !

@MrBazzabee

Жыл бұрын

kzread.info/dash/bejne/ip15tKxwl8iXgZs.html

Ripping tale. Thank you for posting.

This is a terrific homage. 👍

Brilliant 👏

I came here for relief from this horrible tax bill vote. Thank God for these channels that post these amazing videos. Thank you uploader!

As good as it gets in the spirit of James.

excellent!!!

great story well done

Very good story and well dramatized.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Brilliant

this was very well done. Now, off ... to bed.

Excellent Thank you for sharing this great drama on here 😀

@ 19:99 wa wa waaaa, epic voice'ns !!!

Well done it's a nice change to use your own imagination.

l am in joying the story nice to listed have to make pitching in mind

@boojay111

8 жыл бұрын

To help with the English, the word is enjoying not 'in joying' but sorry to say can't make out the rest of the sentence, unless you mean 'nice to listen to' but not sure what you mean by 'pitching in mind'. Well done though

@markmanhetherington1

7 жыл бұрын

I suspect it's "I am enjoying the story, nice to listen, have to make pictures in mind" :)

sounds nearly identical to the much later work: El Club Dumas (1993) by Arturo Perez-Reverte which was the basis of the movie "The Ninth Gate" regarding a book called "The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows"

Wait a minute. This looks like a drama where the Sandman of Neil Gaiman based some of its chapters.

When was this play produced? Great piece.😈

It should be properly attributed to the author, Stephen Sheridan. M.R. James is a character in the play.

I can't help but wish James had developed this fictional book a little more (the Kingdom of Shadows). I'm fairly certain it was the basis/inspiration for the similarly themed & titled book from The Ninth Gate, and if he'd fleshed it out a little more as Lovecraft & Co. did with the Necronomicon it would've made an interesting running undercurrent for a few stories... Even despite that James' is not otherwise in the Lovecraftian vein.

Photos good

Absolutely positively delicious.

Can you upload backward glance please

brilliant

a bit reminiscent of The Hound by Lovecraft

Not a bad pastiche, although the description of the entity came too early for my taste, and lacked the subtlety of James. What really made this work for me was the great voice acting, especially the portrayal M R James and Uncle Magnus.

🎄♥️🙏🏽

What's the choir song at the start? Remember it from radio plays years ago

@risingfromthedeepuk2401

3 жыл бұрын

The Holly and The Ivy - Classic Xmas song

@larrydavid571

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much

For you M R James fans! "The Teeth of Abbott Thomas". kzread.info/dash/bejne/ZZabmK6Jk8uThdY.html Monty Python style comedy parody written Stephen Sheridan...the same guy who wrote "The House at Worlds End".

How come I can’t seem to find this story in any of M.R. James collection of his story books anywhere? Can anyone help me name the book this story is in coz I’ve searched everywhere but I never come across this story in any of his books.

@99zuul

5 жыл бұрын

This was NOT written by M R James. It is a pastiche/radio play written by Stephen Sheridan. For more about Sheridan's radio plays, see www.suttonelms.org.uk/ssheridan.html

@99zuul

5 жыл бұрын

Sheridan wrote for BBC Radio 4. The book in the story was a sixteenth-century tome called De Regni Umbrorum, or The Kingdom of Shadows, of which only one copy existed, and which was said to invoke the Devil. "The Book of Shadows", by Scott Cherry, (c1998, R4) is a play somewhat longer, along similar lines, and is well worth exploring. Correction....it's terrific.

When the bbc was worth listening to

Peter Donaldson RIP

How about labeling this as a tribute?

The author does not know a backwards R makes the "ya" sound, not the traditional "rrr."

1912

?

@alfindlay468

4 жыл бұрын

I wonder if anyone can tell me the name of the Hymn sung by the boys choir at the very beginning?

@johnneville403

3 жыл бұрын

@@alfindlay468 the holly and the ivy.

KZread deleted horror vault.. F you you tube

awesome and entertaining

awesome and entertaining