A Slice of (Haunted) Birthday Cake

Late by a few days - I should really have posted this on the 1st - but hey. Happy 150th birthday, MR James. I have mentioned James elsewhere in this blog, so shall try not to repeat myself, but James is one of the most celebrated writers of the traditional ghost story. As many of his works (including two of his most famous stories: 'Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad, and 'A Warning to the Curious') are set in bleak and lonely stretches of East Anglia, his writings have a particular power over me. Whether successful or not, most of the pictures on this blog do attempt something inherently Jamesian: to hint at the ghosts and forgotten fragments beneath the region's surface.

Warnings to the Curious: In the Holkham - Wells Pinewoods

Woodland structures in the beachside pinewoods between Holkham and Wells Next the Sea. The reality is no doubt far from anything even remotely sinister, but the knowledge that these woods were used as a filming location for the 1972 BBC adaptation of M R James' 'A Warning to the Curious' does give them a nice creep factor. James' East Anglian ghost stories were written in the early twentieth century and several were adapted by the BBC in the 1970s as part of their 'Ghost Story for Christsmas' series. Often set in a thinly-disguised Suffolk and filmed in Norfolk, both the stories and the films offer peerless, quiet, chilling visions of the loneliness and forgotten folklore of the region.

The ghost stories of M R James are of increasing influence not only to me: my former housemate Will is now one of the hosts of the excellent MR James podcast, A Podcast to the Curious. For fans of James, weird fiction, or simply neat and intelligent podcasting, listening is strongly recommended.

http://www.mrjamespodcast.com/