It being the night before Christ­mas and the sea­son for ghost stor­ies, I thought I would pass on prob­ably the shortest ghost story I know (and I’ve cut it short).

It is from the pen of the (head)masterly M.R. James. A clas­sic tale, it even mer­its its own schol­arly art­icle — “The Rules of Folk­lore” in the Ghost Stor­ies of M. R. James, Jac­queline Simpson, Folk­lore, Vol. 108, 1997 (1997), pp. 9–18.

The story takes its inspir­a­tion from The Winter’s Tale. Enjoy. Con­tinue read­ing →