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Episode 4 – The Ash-tree
In this post-Halloween spook-tacular of an episode, your hosts Mike and Will attempt to answer the following thorny questions:
If you answered ‘yes’ to one or more of the above then pull your deep leather armchair closer to the roaring fire, refill your glass of port and prepare to join Mike and Will as they delve into dark and devilish goings on in 17th & 18th century rural Suffolk in M.R. James’s The Ash-tree!
Big thanks to Katy Ross (@dreamkitten) who was our reader for this episode.
Links
M.R. James grew up in Great Livermere and it is widely believed to be the inspiration for Castringham, the setting of ‘The Ash-tree’.
Sadly the hall on which Castringham Hall was based was demolished in 1923 but a photo of it can be found at the Lost Heritage website. Note the extensive growth of foliage visible around the sides of the hall!
Exemplary M.R. James resource Ghosts & Scholars features an excellent set of story notes on The Ash-tree penned by M.R. James expert Rosemary Pardoe.
An interesting article about James’s connection to Great Livermere and stories it inspired.
The history and origins of using the Bible for divination.
An article from the Ghosts & Scholars Newsletter no. 5 on James’s use of spiders in The Ash-tree, with particular reference to a peculiar mini-plague of spiders that hit Bury St. Edmond’s in 1660!
‘Cut it down’ – Luke 13:9
‘It shall never be inhabited’ – Isaiah 13:20
‘Her young ones also suck up blood’ – Job 29:30
‘Thou shall seek me in the morning and I shall not be’ – Job 7:21
Cut from this episode:
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By A Podcast to the Curious - The M.R. James Podcast
4.9
154154 ratings
In this post-Halloween spook-tacular of an episode, your hosts Mike and Will attempt to answer the following thorny questions:
If you answered ‘yes’ to one or more of the above then pull your deep leather armchair closer to the roaring fire, refill your glass of port and prepare to join Mike and Will as they delve into dark and devilish goings on in 17th & 18th century rural Suffolk in M.R. James’s The Ash-tree!
Big thanks to Katy Ross (@dreamkitten) who was our reader for this episode.
Links
M.R. James grew up in Great Livermere and it is widely believed to be the inspiration for Castringham, the setting of ‘The Ash-tree’.
Sadly the hall on which Castringham Hall was based was demolished in 1923 but a photo of it can be found at the Lost Heritage website. Note the extensive growth of foliage visible around the sides of the hall!
Exemplary M.R. James resource Ghosts & Scholars features an excellent set of story notes on The Ash-tree penned by M.R. James expert Rosemary Pardoe.
An interesting article about James’s connection to Great Livermere and stories it inspired.
The history and origins of using the Bible for divination.
An article from the Ghosts & Scholars Newsletter no. 5 on James’s use of spiders in The Ash-tree, with particular reference to a peculiar mini-plague of spiders that hit Bury St. Edmond’s in 1660!
‘Cut it down’ – Luke 13:9
‘It shall never be inhabited’ – Isaiah 13:20
‘Her young ones also suck up blood’ – Job 29:30
‘Thou shall seek me in the morning and I shall not be’ – Job 7:21
Cut from this episode:
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