Things I'm enjoying

A few things that I’ve enjoyed reading/playing/listening to/watching.

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Following on from The Conception of Terror which I talked about last time, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is a 10 part BBC podcast dramatization HP Lovecraft’s story of the same name. This time the story is told from the perspective of two investigators from the ‘Mystery Machine’ podcast looking into Charles Ward’s disappearance. You don't need to know the story as it's quite different from the the original. Anyway, it’s great fun and sounds exactly like a Call of Cthulhu investigation. All 10 episodes are currently available to download from the BBC - along with the start of the next one: The Whisperer in the Darkness...

Villagers 

Villagers is a really nice card game for 1-5 players (although there is a solo option, it’s much better played against others). Following the black death, you must re-populate your village with blacksmiths, carpenters, swineherds, miners and so on. It takes less than an hour to play, and is often a very tight game, with just a few points between first and second place. We’ve played it loads - one of my new favourites.

The Laundry Files

I’m re-reading Charles Stross’ Laundry Files series, starting with The Atrocity Archives and working my way through to the latest, The Labyrinth Index. I’ve finished fifth book (The Rhesus Chart) and am about to start The Annihilation Score, the one with the superpowers. It’s a delight and I’m really enjoying the series. I feel that I'm getting more from them now - I don't know if that's because I know what the future stories bring, or whether I'd simply forgotten so much. Anyway, highly recommended if you like your Lovecraftian horror mixed with workplace humour.

Ghostly Tradition

I found myself spooked by a ghost story last night. It was about 6pm and I was walking back from the garage in the dark, listening to M.R. James’ Lost Hearts - and found myself genuinely unsettled.

Audible has quite a few M.R. James stories available, and it’s about this time of year, in the run-up to Christmas, when I start listening to them again.

My favourites are those narrated by David Suchet - A Warning to the Curious, The Tractate Middoth, Casting the Runes, The Ash Tree, and Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You My Lad.

Derek Jacobi has also narrated two volumes, Ghost Stories Volume 1 (A Warning to the Curious, The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral, The Mezzotint, and A Neighbour's Landmark) and Ghost Stories Volume 2 (A view from a Hill, Rats, A School Story, The Ash Tree, and The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance). Both are from the BBC.

As you can see, there’s a bit of overlap - but not Lost Hearts.

I do have a collection of M.R. James’ ghost stories, which I read many years ago. I don’t find them particularly easy to read - but they are a delight to listen to. They're not very scary either, but then they are around 100 years old.

So what happened with Lost Hearts?

Well Audible recently released The Conception of Terror: Tales Inspired by M. R. James. These are dramatisations rather than a simple narrative, and they've brought the stories into the modern day. While they follow the basic structure of the original tales, they are updated for the modern day and include extra characters to help the narrative. Plus there are some very effective sound effects - and the occasional twist.

Casting the Runes was great - but I listened to it in daylight to and from work, and I knew the story.

I didn’t know Lost Hearts, and I was listening to it in the dark, on lonely streets...

It quite creeped me out - which was wonderful!