Ghost Writers: Montague Rhodes James

Montague Rhodes James (Monty) was an English Medievalist who held posts at King’s College Cambridge and later at Eton College. He was also a master of the short ghost story.
The son of a clergyman, M. R. James was born in Kent, England in 1862. Three years later, he and his family moved to Suffolk, a county that featured in several of his stories. He was educated at home and then at Temple Grove Preparatory School, East Sheen, and from there he went to Eton College in 1876.
Monty was an intelligent child with a vivid imagination and a taste for the macabre. He liked nothing more than reading about the martyrdoms of saints, the occult and the supernatural and wrote his first ghost story while he was still at Eton.
From Eton, James went to King’s College, Cambridge, and after getting his degree, he became a researcher and eventually the college’s Provost. Throughout his years at Cambridge, he never lost interest in writing supernatural short fiction. When he wasn’t studying or cataloguing medieval manuscripts, he found time to pen dark tales.
A typical Jamesian tale unfolds in a quaint English village, seaside location, country house, or ancient European town or city. There we encounter seemingly unremarkable gentlemen on holiday or going about their business, but the stories are anything but mild and inoffensive. James has a terrifying ordeal in store for his protagonists – they must do battle with curses, ghosts and demons.
Herein lies M. R. James’s capacity to scare: his innocuous settings, peopled by commonplace characters, provide a stark contrast to the disturbing details of the plot. The author wanted his readers to feel unnerved by the idea that supernatural power could reign in ordinary life.
He wrote: “Let us, then, be introduced to the actors in a placid way. Let us see them going about their ordinary business, undisturbed by forebodings … and into this calm environment let the ominous thing put out its head, unobtrusively at first, and then more insistently, until it holds the stage.”
James originally wrote his stories to read to friends before the fire by candlelight, and his readings became a regular Christmas event. Later, the stories were published in a series of collections, among them Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, A Thin Ghost and Others, and A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories. Curious Warnings: The Great Ghost Stories of M. R. James is the most comprehensive collection of stories. It contains unfinished tales in addition to the complete short stories.

Some stories have been dramatised for TV, mainly in the UK. However, the first TV adaptation was produced in the USA. “The Lost Will of Dr Rant”, based on “The Tractate Middoth”, appeared in 1951.
In the 70s, the BBC adapted several of James’s stories in their “A Ghost Story for Christmas” series, and in 2000 it revived the tradition of candlelit readings in another Christmas series featuring Christopher Lee.
Most recently, dramatisations of “Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” (entitled “Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come to You”), “The Tractate Middoth”, “Martin’s Close”, “The Mezzotint” and “Count Magnus” have appeared on the small screen. Several of these have been adapted for TV by Mark Gatiss.
James’s tales remain popular among ghost story devotees, and several modern authors have paid homage to his style, such as Susan Hill (The Woman in Black), Gerald Heard (The Black Fox) and Kingsley Amis (The Green Man).
James was also admired by contemporaries such as H. P. Lovecraft, another master of mystery and the macabre. Lovecraft wrote in his essay entitled “Supernatural Horror in Literature”: “Montague Rhodes James has an intelligent and scientific knowledge of human nerves and feelings; and knows just how to apportion statement, imagery, and subtle suggestions in order to secure the best results with his readers.”
In later life, Monty returned to Eton as Provost and died there in 1936. By the time of his death, he had written over 30 ghost stories. Dip into a collection and prepare to be unsettled.