A tale of summers spent in a sleepy Cornish village where an ancient church holds a sinister and deadly secret...
DIRECT DOWNLOAD - Negotium Perambulans by EF Benson
Showing posts with label ef benson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ef benson. Show all posts
Sunday, 22 June 2025
Sunday, 15 December 2024
FROM THE GREAT LIBRARY OF DREAMS 127 - Between the Lights by EF Benson
For your third ghost story for Christmas, we have a tale from EF Benson which begins with a Yuletide gathering where the gathered guests are telling ghost stories...
Saturday, 5 October 2024
FROM THE GREAT LIBRARY OF DREAMS 118 - Mrs Amworth by EF Benson
To begin the spooky season a chilling tale from EF Benson, which reaches its terrifying climax in the month of October...
Sunday, 30 July 2023
FROM THE GREAT LIBRARY OF DREAMS 087 - The Room in the Tower by EF Benson
In this show we have a reading of one of the all-time classic ghost stories - The Room in the Tower by E. F. Benson, a tale of summer parties on the lawn and a recurring nightmare...
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Sunday, 11 December 2022
THE OLDTIME YULETIDE ADVENT CALENDAR - Day 11
Welcome dear friends back to the Hypnogoria Old-time Yuletide Advent Calendar! Today we are opening Door 11, and making a festive visit to a very special location. For K stands for King’s College, Cambridge.
Cambridge University began life back in 1231, and it is the third oldest university in the entire world. Now this venerable seat of learning is made up of various different colleges, which all take in students individually. Now King’s College was founded in 1441 by King Henry VI, and traditionally would take in students from the equally famous school Eton. Five years after opening, the college began work on its famous chapel, which boasts the largest fan vault ceiling in the world, with construction starting in 1446 and finally finishing in 1515.
Now King’s College has two very famous associations with the festive season. Firstly there are the ghost stories of MR James, and secondly there is the famous Christmas Eve service, Carols from King’s, which is broadcast all around the world. However what is not so well known, is the fact that these two very different parts of Christmas are in fact intimately linked. Allow me to explain…
Firstly Montague Rhodes James was a gifted scholar as a child, studying first at the prep school Temple Grove, and then Eton College. He became an undergraduate at King’s College in 1882, and after gaining his degree, remained there first as a scholar and later as part of the staff. He became a Fellow in 1887, a Dean of the college in 1889, a Tutor in 1900 and finally Provost in 1905, a position which he held until 1918, after which he returned to his old school of Eton to become Provost here.
In 1892, James had a whimsical supernatural tale printed in the college magazine The Cambridge Review, entitled A Night in King’s College Chapel, which had the famous stained glass windows coming to life.
However it was the following year, on the night of October 28th 1893, that James turned up at a meeting of the Chit Chat Club with two stories to read aloud to his companions. And these were to be the first of his famous ghost stories, with the Chit Chat Club hearing the first reading of Canon Alberic’s Scrap-book and Lost Hearts.
The stories went down so well that James penned further ghostly tales to be read aloud, and it became something of a Christmas tradition for Monty, as he was known to his friends, to read a brand new tale at a festive gathering at King’s. And aside from eventually having his eerie tales published in a series of books, James also inspired several other fellows at King’s to pen some ghostly tales of their own. EG Swain, who was chaplain at King’s produced a volume called The Stoneground Ghost Tales, AC Benson would regularly pen ghost tales, mostly collected in two volumes The Hill of Trouble and Other Stories (1903) and The Isles of Sunset (1904), while his brother was the prolific EF Benson, creator of the Mapp and Lucia comic novels, but was also a master of the ghost story to rival James himself. And indeed future alumni of King’s College such as ANL Munby and RH Malden, went on to pen ghostly tales in a Jamesian vein too.
Furthermore the BBC picked up on the tradition of telling ghost stories for Christmas, and over the decades, the ghostly tales of MR James, many of which were written to be read to friends upon a Christmas night, have been firm favourites for readings and adapting into dramas on both radio and television.
Now secondly, there is the world famous Christmas Eve service Carols from King’s. And this famous Christmas carol service is based on a traditional Yuletide format called Nine Lessons and Carols. Now this classic template for a carol service originated in Truro, Cornwall in 1880, and soon gained popularity across England, even finding favour with other denominations outside the Church of England. And in 1918, the Rev. Eric Milner-White, the new dean of King's College, Cambridge, introduced the service to the college. It proved highly popular, thanks to extra magic brought by the King’s College choristers, and soon became an annual tradition.
In 1928, the BBC began to broadcast the service on the radio, and from 1954 onwards on television. And now watching the annual broadcast at tea-time on Christmas Eve is a firm part of many people’s Christmas traditions.
However the fascinating thing that few people are aware of, is that these two Yuletide traditions have a special link. For the Bishop of Truro who designed the Nine Lessons and Carols service back in 1880 was the Right Reverend Edward White Benson, who was the father of the Benson brothers, EF and AC who were both great friends of MR James, and ghost story writers too.
However, while I could round off today’s offering on that bombshell, I can’t resist including a ghost story from King’s College itself. Close to the chapel, stands the Gibbs Building. And at some point in the 1800s it was home to a student called Barrett. Now Mr Barrett was something of a character, interested in the occult and dark arts, and even allegedly sleeping in a coffin. Furthermore, often there were wild screams heard coming from his rooms in the dead of night.
However, one night, all was quiet. Too quiet, in fact. And so his fellows broke down the door and found him dead in his coffin bed. However that wasn’t the end of the matter. For on the anniversary of his death, it was reported that one could still hear unearthly screams coming from Barrett's former rooms. MR James himself actually lived in rooms in the Gibbs Building for some time, but he never heard the ghostly cries. However, he attested that he knew other residents of the edifice who had…
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Sunday, 3 July 2022
FROM THE GREAT LIBRARY OF DREAMS 057- And No Bird Sings by EF Benson
In this show, we return to the chilling tales of EF Benson. In this particular story we discover that even the English countryside at the height of a glorious summer can be home to dark and dreadful things...
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Saturday, 20 June 2020
FROM THE GREAT LIBRARY OF DREAMS 014 - The Man Who Went Too Far by EF Benson
As it is midsummer - a time of magic and mystery - we have a tale of sunlit horror from the great EF Benson. In The Man Who Went Too Far we discover ancient and terrifying powers are very much alive and well in the heart of the English countryside.
DIRECT DOWNLOAD - The Man Who Went Too Far by EF Benson
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Sunday, 16 August 2015
FROM THE GREAT LIBRARY OF DREAMS 11 - The Hanging of Alfred Wadham by EF Benson
This week we return to the cosy fireside of the Great Library of Dreams, where Mr Jim Moon has a fascinating tale to tell, and a fascinating tale to tell about it. As requested by a listener, we hear EF Benson's eerie classic The Hanging of Alfred Wadham and learn of the troubles the great Roald Dahl had trying to bring it to the screen...
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Tuesday, 23 December 2014
CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES THIRD NIGHT: The Step by EF Benson
It's the third night of ghostly tales at the Great Library of Dreams. Tonight Mr Jim Moon takes his place by the fireside to deliver a tale from EF Benson that will take us to Egypt and takes place upon a benighted Christmas Eve!
DIRECT DOWNLOAD: Christmas Ghost Stories Third Night: The Step by EF Benson
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Sunday, 13 October 2013
HYPNOBOBS 129 - Room For One More
Mr Jim Moon invites you once more to the fireside in the Great Library of Dreams for a reading of a classic ghost story by EF Benson - The Bus Conductor - and unravels the legends surrounding this eerie tale...
DIRECT DOWNLOAD - Room For One More
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Wednesday, 19 June 2013
HYPNOBOBS 119 - The Man Who Went Too Far
As Midsummer approaches, Mr Jim Moon unearths a suitable tale of sunlit terror and presents a reading of The Man Who Went Too Far by EF Benson.
Direct download - The Man Who Went Too Far
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Sunday, 7 October 2012
HYPNOBOBS 97 - The Room In The Tower
This week Mr Jim Moon presents an introduction to a fine author of many a cracking weird tale, Mr EF Benson. And we sample his canon with a reading and discussion of his celebrated story of troubling dreams and nightmares, The Room in the Tower.
DIRECT DOWNLOAD - The Room In The Tower
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