The Stony Grin of Malice

M. R. James is often cited as the greatest writer of ghost stories in the English language. Such classics as "Casting the Runes," "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad" and "Count Magnus" still have a power to frighten today, and his collected stories have never been out of print.

James was not a prolific author—he had a day job at Cambridge to keep up—and only wrote about three dozen stories. He also authored several short essays about ghosts and ghost stories, setting out his own thoughts on what a proper ghost story should contain.

In one of these essays, "Stories I Have Tried to Write," James also outlines story ideas that either "broke down" during the composition process or which failed to meet his own standards for publication. After his death a number of these unfinished stories were found in his papers and ultimately published in specialized collections of his work.

In the 1980s, BBC writer Sheila Hodgson used these outlines as the basis for a series of radio plays and short stories, which set off a kind of parlor game in which amateur authors (and a few professionals) attempted to "complete" James's outlines and fragments.

The stories in this collection are my own contributions to this sport, and an homage to an author I deeply admire.