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 Montague Rhodes James was born at Goodnestone Parsonage, Kent, England on 1 August 1862, the son of a Church of England clergyman. In 1876 he became a scholar at Eton and from there went on in 1882 to King’s College, Cambridge of which he became a fellow in 1887. In 1905, he became Provost of King’s, a post he left in 1918 to become Provost of Eton.
Although in academic life, he was a renowned medieval scholar, it is for his ghost stories that James will be best remembered. Following an English tradition, the tales were first penned as Christmas Eve entertainments read by James himself to gatherings of friends. James' ghost stories were published in a series of collections: Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911), A Thin Ghost and Others (1919), and A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories (1925). The first hardback collected edition appeared in 1931.
His work has been described as perfecting the key elements of the modern ghost story, narrating supernatural events largely through implication and suggestion, leaving space for the reader’s own imagination and, as the principal narrator, remaining at least one step removed from his protagonist.
Interest in James’ work has never been stronger and Craftsman’s audio editions are the first complete unabridged recording of all of the published ghost stories.
M. R. James remained in the role as Provost of Eton until his death on 12 June 1936
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