Episode 63 – Christmas Re-union by Sir Andrew Caldecott

A Podcast to the Curious - The M.R. James Podcast

Ho ho ho! We have a festive cracker of an episode for you this month (literally), as Mike and Will explore Sir Andrew Caldecott’s M.R. James-inspired tale, ‘Christmas Re-union‘.

A big thank you to Tony Mears, who provided the readings for this episode. Check out his bands new track ‘A Hypothermia Banquet‘ on Bandcamp!

Story notes:

• ‘Christmas Re-union’ by Sir Andrew Caldecott (gutenberg.net.au)
  The collection in which this story appears can be read online at Project Gutenberg Australia.
• Sir Andrew Caldecott (wikipedia)
  Andrew Caldecott was a big cheese in the Colonial Office for much of this life, only starting to publish ghost stories after he retired. You can find out more about his career at britishempire.co.uk.
• Stories I Have Tried to Write by M.R. James (mrjamespodcast.com)
  Not familiar with the M.R. James essay from which Caldecott took his inspiration for this story? We put out a full reading of it back in 2011 which you can listen to online!
• Ghost story reviews: Not Exactly Ghosts (Tychy)
  An interesting review and commentary on the volume in which this story appears.
• Christmas Re-union (Anibalan.com)
  An essay on this story, and on Sir Andrew Caldecott in general.
• The Great Smog of London (wikipedia)
  The characters express a lot of concern about fog in this story. When you read about the Great Smog of December 1952 you will understand why!
• Sir Roger de Coverley (wikipedia)
  This famous country dance, mentioned in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, also makes an appearance in this story.