‘Christmas Ghosts’ for the Churches Conservation Trust

This afternoon I delivered my second live Facebook lecture for the Churches Conservation Trust (CCT), following on from my lecture on ‘Macabre Church Lore’ in October. The theme this time was ‘Christmas Ghosts’, and my talk traced the origins and evolution of the Christmas ghost story from early England to the BBC’s annual adaptations of the ghost stories of M.R. James. On Tuesday I filmed a special feature for the CCT which will be made available closer to Christmas, and whose character will be revealed then!

As it happened, I also spoke about M.R. James today on BBC Radio Suffolk, where my usual ‘Spooky Suffolk’ segment focussed on M.R. James’s Suffolk roots and the seasonal significance of his ghost stories. You can listen again here (from time signature 1:15:00).