Ghosts & Scholars 50 - The Final Issue

  

The final issue of the long-running M.R. James journal Ghosts & Scholars, no 50, has recently been published. Edited by Rosemary Pardoe and Andy Sawyer, this is an extra large issue, at 60pp.

Ghosts & Scholars was founded in 1979 by Rosemary, who edited it for 33 issues between 1979 – 2001. It was replaced by her The Ghosts & Scholars M. R. James Newsletter, which was similar, but generally excluded fiction. This also ran for 33 issues from March 2002 to April 2018. Ghosts & Scholars then resumed from October 2018 (no 34), still edited by Rosemary Pardoe, and it then continued under her guidance but with guest editors or co-editors from no 38 onwards.

The farewell issue includes cover artwork by Jim Pitts and Daniel McGachey, stories by Katherine Haynes, Helen Grant, Daniel McGachey, C.J. Faraday and Josh Reynolds, a poetic tribute by Tina Rath, and non-fiction by Jim Bryant, Rick Kennett, Michael Fogus, John Howard and the editors, along with seven pages of reviews. This issue is limited to 250 copies.

All subscriber copies have been posted. Copies of this issue and of some back issues may be available from Andy Richards at Cold Tonnage Books.

Ghosts & Scholars 48

 

Ghosts & Scholars 48, co-edited by Rosemary Pardoe and Katherine Haynes, has just been published. The latest issue of the M R James journal includes two long, new stories from Steve Duffy and David Longhorn.

In non-fiction, Jim Bryant continues his series on MRJ’s travels, with ‘In the Tracks of M R James, No 9: Sweden’, Loretta Nikolic looks at ‘Potential inspirations for “The Uncommon Prayer-Book”’, and Iain Smith celebrates the centenary of James’ book Abbeys.

Rosemary Pardoe contributes an essay-review on Casting the Runes: The Letters of M R James. Rick Kennett surveys podcasts of MRJ interest, and there are five reviews of recent books and events also of James interest.

Update: This issue may still be available from Cold Tonnage Books. 

All subscriber copies have been posted.

(Mark Valentine)

Ghosts & Scholars 47

The latest issue of the M.R. James journal Ghosts & Scholars is now available. Issue 47 has been guest edited by Helen Kemp, with cover artwork by Loretta Nikolic.

This issue includes four new stories in the Jamesian tradition, ‘The Light of Darkness’ by David A. Sutton, ‘A Crooked Path’ by Josh Reynolds, ‘Professor Parkin’s Christmas Holiday’ by Tina Rath and ‘Whitaker on Daemons’ by George Frost.

In non-fiction, Katherine Haynes asks ‘Is George Martin bewitched and is he a murderer?’, in a new consideration of MRJ’s ‘Martin’s Close’, and Dr Richard Hoggett discusses ‘M.R. James and the Abbey of St.Edmund, Bury St. Edmunds’. Norman Darwen provides a note on M.R. James and the psychic researcher Harry Price, while in her regular column Rosemary Pardoe argues that MRJ’s stories are not characteristically Victorian and that they do have, like more modern stories, elements of doubt and ambiguity. There are also book and podcast reviews.

Update: this issue may still be available from Cold Tonnage Books. 

(All subscriber copies have been posted.)

 

Ghosts and Scholars 44

The latest issue of the M R James journal Ghosts and Scholars is now available. Issue 44 has been guest edited by Benjamin Harris.

This issue includes an essay on M R James as a Dramatist by Tony Medawar. MRJ wrote two plays for the choristers of King’s College Cambridge, performed in 1895 and 1896, and five Miracle Plays while Provost of Eton. Tony’s fascinating original research explores these.

Iain Smith contributes an essay on ‘The Fenstanton Witch’, a James story rediscovered and edited for publication by Rosemary Pardoe. He discusses its origins and its link to a better-known James story.

Issue 44 also offers new Jamesian fiction by Katherine Haynes and Timothy Granville, Rosemary Pardoe’s ‘Lady Wardrop’s Secret’ column and Rick Kennett’s round-up of Jamesian podcasts. There’s also Jamesian News, and reviews of four books of Jamesian interest. Cover art is by Jim Pitts.

This issue also comes with an extra booklet, Diggin’ ‘ere: Excavating with M R James in Cyprus 1887/8, edited and with an introduction by Jim Bryant. As a young man, James joined excavations organised by the British School in Athens. Jim’s paper draws on M R James’ letters to his family about the dig.

Copies to existing subscribers are on their way. 

Update: sold out. 

The Ghosts & Scholars Book of Follies and Grottoes

Sarob Press have announced publication in mid-September of The Ghosts & Scholars Book of Follies And Grottoes, the latest in the series of Jamesian anthologies edited and introduced by Rosemary Pardoe. The architectural features of the title are among the most pleasing monuments in the English landscape, and sufficiently enigmatic in their history and traditions to offer themes for the antiquarian ghost story, as well as more contemporary approaches. 

The book includes thirteen stories, eight of them new, with five reprints, which 'range widely, from mysterious towers and classical temples to hidden grottoes; from revivals of the worship of ancient gods to unexpected distortions of space and time'.

This is a limited, hand-numbered edition with cover art by Paul Lowe. Previous Ghosts & Scholars anthologies have not remained in print for very long!

Ghosts & Scholars 42

Ghosts and Scholars 42, guest edited by Carole Tyrrell, is the latest issue of the long-running M R James journal. It includes a comparatively rare, unfinished M R James story, newly completed by John Linwood Grant.

As founding editor Rosemary Pardoe notes in her introduction, ‘M.R. James's almost complete, untitled draft of this story was first published in The Ghosts & Scholars M.R. James Newsletter 7 (2005) under the title "Speaker Lenthall's Tomb".  Unfortunately, the manuscript has one or perhaps two missing pages, close to (but not at) the end’. John Linwood Grant has supplied the missing section in expert sympathy with James’ tale.

G&S 42 also includes an informal photograph of M R James, accompanying Jim Bryant’s article on MRJ’s cycling holidays with friends in the Pyrenees; new Jamesian fiction by Victoria Day; Lady Wardrop’s notes on MRJ and dogs and cats; Rick Kennett on Jamesian podcasts; and an extensive review section. The front and back covers feature collage artwork by Rosemary Pardoe.

This issue was much in demand. We usually print enough copies for our existing subscribers, plus a bit extra. This time we increased our print run by over 20%, but this sold out on the day the copies arrived from the printer.

We can’t print a whole lot more because we are kindly given some copyright permissions on the basis that we are a short-run small press journal – and also because we’re volunteer-run and only have so much capacity!

Update: now out of print.

Note: All copies to existing subscribers have been posted.

(Mark Valentine)