Ghost Stories
Good reasons to feature ‘Ghost Stories’ in any literacy programme for Key Stage
3
Superb readings by Peter Davison demonstrate an excellent example of speaking
skills.
Riveting stories by M.R.James are made accessible to a wider audience through
skilled editing of the language.
Traditional stories are represented with ‘Long Tom and the Dead Hand’. ‘Ghost
Wherry’ is a fine example of a dramatic retelling.
CONTENTS OF THE BOOKLET
The Oral Tradition
LONG TOM AND THE DEAD
HAND
Kevin Crossley-Holland
‘When the moon didn’t shine, out came the Things that dwelt in the darkness and
went about seeking to do evil and harm; Bogles and Crawling Horrors.’
The mysteries of ancient lands linger on through the centuries, resulting in
fear and superstition. The world of the fens and marshes would later be changed
forever but stories and legends keep their traditions alive.
LOST
HEARTS
M.R. James
‘Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil’
The everyday life of a household in the isolated setting of a Lincolnshire
country mansion, contrasts with the terrible mysteries of ancient religions and
worship of the god, Mithras.
GHOST
WHERRY
Shirley Bignell
‘Opportunity makes a thief’
A short history of the rivers and broads of Suffolk and Norfolk is illustrated
with descriptions of the towns and sites along the banks and shores of the
rivers along the route covered by the wherry, ‘Mayfly’.
Trade and the Barges - describes the working life of the area which forms the
backdrop to the story.
Smuggling tells of another aspect of life in the Broadlands.
THE ASH
TREE
M.R.James
'It will be long, I think, before we arrive at a just estimate of the amount of
solid reason – if there was any – which lay at the root of the universal fear
of witches in olden times’
East Anglia was notorious for the numbers of those condemned during the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
The fear of Catholics was also prevalent at Ghosts and M.R. James – explores how
a clergyman, later a Dean of a Cambridge College came to write ghost stories.
GHOST STORIES Audio CD and 24 page booklet
Four chilling tales by M.R. James, Kevin Crossley-Holland and
Shirley Bignell
Read by Peter Davison
Total running time 70:28
Price £9:45
ISBN 0-9539556-1-3
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