Episode 96 – The Real and the Counterfeit by Louisa Baldwin
A Podcast to the Curious - The M.R. James PodcastShow Notes
This episode, Mike and Will grab their literary toboggans and gallop joyously out into the snow, only to be hit in the face by a terrifying fictional snowball in the form of Louisa Baldwin’s The Real and the Counterfeit!
Big thanks as ever to Debbie Wedge for providing the readings for this episode. Looking for a last-minute Christmas gift to please the M.R. James fan in your life? Why not head over to Debbie’s Redbubble store and pick up an awesome Jamesian Wallop, Barchestering, or No Diggin’ ‘Ere t-shirt?
Show notes:
More on Louisa Baldwin in our last episode
We covered The Weird of the Walfords back in the summer, and included a lot more biographical details about Louisa Baldwin.
Long Galleries (wikipedia)
A lot of the action in this story takes place in a long gallery, a popular architectural feature of many stately homes in England.
George’s banjo (authorama.com)
Like Lawley in this story, George in Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat was also a keen banjo player, much to the displeasure of his friends. Similarly, in Thank You, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse, Bertie’s insistence on playing the banjolele is what finally drives Jeeves to leave Bertie’s service (albeit temporarily).
Other haunted abbeys (nearlyknowledgeablehistory.blogspot.com)
In this episode, Mike mentions a number of old houses in England that are, like Stonecroft, said to be haunted by ghostly monks.
Tobogganing at Funchal (carreirosdomonte.com)
The city of Funchal in Madeira is famous for providing toboggan-like basket rides from the Mount Church on the hill, down into the town.
More from A Podcast to the Curious - The M.R. James Podcast
This episode Mike and Will examine Curfew by Lucy M. Boston, a childhood tale of haunted bells, unearthed coffins and post-Jamesian highjinx aplenty.
M.R. James said that sex had no place in a ghost story. But was he right? This episode we attempt to answer this question and more, as we cover The Nature of the Evidence by May Sinclair, a tale from 1923 about a couple who just want to enjoy their wedding night. Is that too much to ask? Apparently, yes.
Hold on to your mummy! This episode Mike and Will discuss Mark Gatiss’s recent Ghost Story for Christmas TV adaptation Lot 249, as well as the Arthur Conan Doyle short story it is based on.
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This episode we speak with two experts to better understand Eleanor Scott and her story Randall’s Round, Dr Vicky Margree and Prof Dan Orrells. We discuss what’s known about Eleanor Scott, her time at Oxford University in the early 1900s and the role of gender, folklore and imperialism in her writing.