Show Notes
This episode Mike and Will return to the realms of the ‘psychic detective’ in this tale from mother-son writing team Kate and Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard. Expect terror on the moors with malevolent earth spirits, coughing ghosts, ominous otters and even a bicycle chase scene!
A big thanks to Rob Douglas, who provided the readings for this episode.
Head over to Friends of Count Magnus to find out more about the M.R. James conference that is taking place in York this September!
Story notes
Hesketh Hesketh-Pritchard (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia provides a decent summary of Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard’s eclectic life.
Flaxman Low, Occult Psychologist, Collected Stories (Project Guttenberg Australia)
You can read this story and a selection of other Flaxman Low tales for free online at Project Gutenberg Australia.
Flaxman Low: The First Psychic Detective (interestingliterature.com)
A nice summary of Flaxman Low and other ‘psychic detective’ characters in Victorian and Edwardian fiction.
Haunted Holidays: The Terrible Occult Detectives (Tor.com)
This highly entertaining article by Grady Hendrix pulls apart and lampoons the ‘psychic detective’ character in fiction, including examples such as Dr. Hesselius, Dr. John Silence and Flaxman Low.
Who ya gonna call? Ghost doctor, ghost-finder or ghost-seer? (Skulls in the Stars)
This blog post also talks about the phenomenon of the ‘psychic detective’ character in fiction, including a Top Trumps-esque breakdown the the more famous psychic detective characters along with their skill-sets and character defects.
Will-o’-the-wisp (Wikipedia)
In this episode we discuss whether the haunting could be related to or inspired by the natural (or supernatural?) phenomena of the ‘Will-o’-the-wisp’ or ‘ghost light’.
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.
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!
Who would win in a fight between a man and a bed? Find the answer to this question and more in our new episode on The Weird of the Walfords by Louisa Baldwin! Also, if you like emotionally-repressed Victorian husbands, you will not leave disappointed.