M.R. James and the Craft of Fear

The BBC’s 1973 adaptation of Lost Hearts, directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark

The ghost stories of Etonian scholar Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936) are about as perfect in terms of structure and technique as it’s possible to get. With the thirty-three terror tales James penned for his own amusement, including classics such as Casting the Runes and Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad, he revolutionised the form. Building on innovations made by Irish writer J. Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873), Jam...