Dr King's Curiosities
Dr King's Curiosities Podcast
The Mezzotint by M.R James
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The Mezzotint by M.R James

Tea and a Tale, stories from 'The Bat Book'

Welcome to a brand new series: Tea and a Tale! Grab yourself a beverage of your choice and join me in my kitchen to hear a story from ‘The Mammoth Book of Thrillers, Ghosts & Mysteries,’ (1936): “an impressively handsome book with a huge range of classic and more obscure stories of the supernatural from every famous writer of that particular genre that you could imagine, from Stoker to Christie, from M. R. James to H. G. Wells.”

I’m affectionately calling it ‘The Bat Book’ because of its lovely front cover design. We found my copy in amongst my grandmother’s books and it struck me as an excellent opportunity to read and discuss some short horror stories with fellow lovers of the spooky and macabre. I will be reading them out loud for the first time as I record, and you’ll hear all the mistakes I make along with the humming of my fridge, the buzzing of lights, and the occasional commotion in the gardens outside.

Today’s story “The Mezzotint” by M. R. James, is described in the contents page as follows:

“A picture that puzzled the best wits of the university and frightened the man-servant out of his.”

Listen to hear the full story and subscribe to join in today’s chat thread to hear what I thought of it, and share your reactions too.

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