Michael Hordern readings of M.R.James stories
phil
As far as I'm aware, Argo only released three double-cassette volumes
of Sir Michael Hordern reading selected supernatural stories by M.R.
James - these volumes/collections were as follows:
Ghost Stories
More Ghost Stories
Number 13 and other Ghost Stories
The narrated stories were:
The Ash Tree
Rats
A School Story
The Haunted Dolls' House
The Diary of Mr Poynter
There was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard
Lost Hearts
Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You My Lad
The Mezzotint
Casting the Runes
Count Magnus
Canon Alberic's Scrapbook
The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral
Number 13
That was it wasn't it? Sir Michael Hordern didn't read any others did
he?
I know there was another collection of M.R. James stories released by
ISIS Audio Books titled 'A Warning to the Curious' and narrated by
Nigel Lambert, but surely no other releases by Argo or with Hordern
reading?
huw....@gmail.com
Phil, I'm pretty sure that's the lot. It's a pity they're not all
available as a CD boxset. My tapes (wherever they are - I can't find
them, possibly due to moving house four times in the last eighteen
years) are probably all mouldy by now, due to the soggy climate here in
East Asia.
Huw
Rick Kennett
> of Sir Michael Hordern reading selected supernatural stories by M.R.
> James - these volumes/collections were as follows:
>
> Ghost Stories
> More Ghost Stories
> Number 13 and other Ghost Stories
No, there was a fourth: A Warning to the Curious which contains
"Stories I Have Tried to Write", "The Uncommon Prayer-Book", "A Warning
to the Curious", "A Neighbour's Landmark" and "The Rose Garden."
Rick
phil
wrote:
>No, there was a fourth: A Warning to the Curious which contains
>"Stories I Have Tried to Write", "The Uncommon Prayer-Book", "A Warning
>to the Curious", "A Neighbour's Landmark" and "The Rose Garden."
I see, many thanks - and that was definitely read by Michael Hordern?
Do you happen to know when it was released pleased?
Also, did Argo release it?
Regards
phil
>Phil, I'm pretty sure that's the lot. It's a pity they're not all
>available as a CD boxset. My tapes (wherever they are - I can't find
>them, possibly due to moving house four times in the last eighteen
>years) are probably all mouldy by now, due to the soggy climate here in
>East Asia.
I too wish a CD set would get a release - I understand that Argo are
no more though. :(
Rick Kennett
Yes. Definitely.
> Do you happen to know when it was released please?
1986
> Also, did Argo release it?
Yes.
If it helps you find a copy, printed on the spine of the box is SAY
SERIES 418 045-4 and under that ZS2.
Rick
Tom A.
audio versions than the free ones at Librivox.
And I found indeed a few decent recordings in the form of affordable
mp3 downloads at www.audioville.co.uk
The stories I found were: The Tractate Middoth, Martin's Close, The
mezzotint (which you won't find by searching for "MR James" - and in
addition it was wrongly classified as part of a scifi collection), and
Lost Hearts (for which I had to be creative to be able add it to my
shopping basket as their server had a problem with this page).
All in all approx 4.5 GBP, which is not unreasonable for almost 120
minutes of nicely told stories.
enjoy,
Tom
ps Of course I would love to get my hands on the collections that are
mentioned here but chances are that I never will be able. And I don't
know if my cassette deck still works properly after years of being
disconnected (I would convert these audio tapes to more future-proof
mp3 is possible)
haunte...@hotmail.com
I'm pretty certain I don't have this either. I thought there were just
three but clearly more Hordern tales exist.
There's a notorious Ebay pirate selling copyright protected CDs and
MP£s of these tales on Ebay ("dunctay"). Oddly, the base for his
pirate operations is linked to from www.stephengray.net
Dunctay's recordings include all of the Sheila Hodgson tales (still in
copyright), the Robert Powell ones (also still in copyright) plus
Stephen Fry's own Jamesian pastiche (though dunctay aka Duncan Taylor
has sensibly removed Fry's name from the listing perhaps fearing
litigation).
Of course, the correct thing to do would be to buy audio tape copies
and make your own CDs or MP3 files. I support piracy where the sum
asked is neglible but I think Dunctay sells his recordings in three
separate chunks, and then provides them direct as an MP3 rather than
actually send you a CD with cover notes.
CB
(It was dunctay who incurred outrage a year or two back for selling
£100 DVDs of M R James BBC dramas on Ebay before they were recently
repeated. His curious "M R James inspired" artwork has to been to be
believed: not so much Gilbert James as Delboy Trotter.)
phil
wrote:
>Inspired by this thread I checked if I could find better executed MRJ
>audio versions than the free ones at Librivox.
>And I found indeed a few decent recordings in the form of affordable
>mp3 downloads at www.audioville.co.uk
>The stories I found were: The Tractate Middoth, Martin's Close, The
>mezzotint (which you won't find by searching for "MR James" - and in
>addition it was wrongly classified as part of a scifi collection), and
>Lost Hearts (for which I had to be creative to be able add it to my
>shopping basket as their server had a problem with this page).
>All in all approx 4.5 GBP, which is not unreasonable for almost 120
>minutes of nicely told stories.
Thanks very much for that pointer - who narrates those that you
mentioned, presumably not Sir Michael Hordern?
phil
wrote:
>>> Do you happen to know when it was released please?
>
>1986
Thank you.
>> Also, did Argo release it?
>
>Yes.
That's VERY interesting, I really wish I could get hold of these.
>If it helps you find a copy, printed on the spine of the box is SAY
>SERIES 418 045-4 and under that ZS2.
Now who sells second hand audio tapes on the Internet (besides on
Ebay)? :-)
Thanks
Rick Kennett
there and listened to "The Monkey's Paw" and some Poe tales. In case
you're not aware, another two free on-line audio sites for vintage
spook stories are audiobooksforfree.com and Voices in the Dark which
includes a story of my own (plug plug).
Rick
prince...@yahoo.co.uk
an extra (OK, *the* extra) on the BFI's DVD release of Lawrence Gordon
Clark's excellent BBC Ghost Story For Christmas dramatisation of said
tale:
http://www.bfi.org.uk/booksvideo/video/details/awarning/
Steve
phil
>Michael Hordern's reading of "A Warning To The Curious" is included as
>an extra (OK, *the* extra) on the BFI's DVD release of Lawrence Gordon
>Clark's excellent BBC Ghost Story For Christmas dramatisation of said
>tale:
>
Just ordered the DVD in fact, thanks. :-)
Now if only someone would release the rest of Horderns' readings
........
prince...@yahoo.co.uk
phil wrote:
> On 4 Sep 2006 02:06:35 -0700, prince...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
>
> >Michael Hordern's reading of "A Warning To The Curious" is included as
> >an extra (OK, *the* extra) on the BFI's DVD release of Lawrence Gordon
> >Clark's excellent BBC Ghost Story For Christmas dramatisation of said
> >tale:
> >
>
> Just ordered the DVD in fact, thanks. :-)
Another (soon-to-be) satisfied customer! Now, just nip back to the BFI
website and pick up "The Signalman" while you're at it. Then set up a
petition to get them to release David Rudkin's weird and wonderful
"Penda's Fen" on DVD...
Steve
haunte...@hotmail.com
Weird and wonderful....but flawed. All of that homoerotic fantasising
about the milkman isn't to everyone's taste - and the talking scarecrow
in the chair at the end would probably not have even made it into a
poor episode of Dr Who or Blake's Seven - but the dream sequence in the
garden where people cue up to have their hands chopped off is very
disturbing (no doubt a metaphor warning against the perils of making
congress with one's five fingered love machine, to badly paraphrase
Steve Pemberton from LOG).
CB
Al
Great news! You can get the full Librivox catalog as a set of .iso CD
images chock full of .mp3s at this URL: http://librivarc.cabspace.com
troddg
I'm hoping you can help me, I've been trying find the complete recordings
of Michael Hordern's readings of M.R. James Ghost stories for quite
sometime now (about 4 years) but to no avail, when I stumbled across your
post from last year. I previously owned the first 2 volumes, ghost stories
and more ghost stories on audio cassette which I managed to transfer onto
my computer before the tapes disentergrated. however I had my laptop
stolen and with it my last copies of the readings. I'm desperate to
replace them and was hoping you could help. do you have or know of anyone
who has this collection on CD or Itunes that I could run a copy from? I'd
be happy to pay for them. I'm also hugely interested n the 3rd Volume,
number 13 and other stories, as I haven't come across these before.
regards
Geoff
chris ward
I realise that this isn't directly answering your question, but are
you aware of the recently released audio cds that feature all of MR
James ghost stories (including those missing from the standard
"collected ghost stories")? Details available at:
http://www.craftsmanaudio.co.uk/pages/base.html
I haven't heard the recordings myself, but early responses appear to
be very positive.
best wishes - Chris
Sheerluck
"chris ward" <cw...@udcf.gla.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:1193412355.0...@o38g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
Coming in on the tail end of this post , I'm not sure if this has been
mentioned before , but there is a Librivox Recording of "Ghost Stories of an
Antiquary" by M R James .
Unfortunately the readers do not have the best voices for this kind of thing
. Horden would be brilliant .
There is a small sound sample of Horden on the Craftsfmanaudio web-site .
Sheerluck
Sheerluck
"Sheerluck" <sheerlu...@dreamon.com.au> wrote in message
news:4722a9fc$0$10671$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au...
Ooops!
Forgot to give the link for the Librivox recording .
http://librivox.org/ghost-stories-of-an-antiquary-by-m-r-james/
Sheerluck
Tom A.
<sheerlu...@dreamon.com.au> said:
>
> "Sheerluck" <sheerlu...@dreamon.com.au> wrote in message
> news:4722a9fc$0$10671$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au...
>>
>> "chris ward" <cw...@udcf.gla.ac.uk> wrote in message
>> news:1193412355.0...@o38g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
>>> Hello Geoff,
>>>
>>> I realise that this isn't directly answering your question, but are
>>> you aware of the recently released audio cds that feature all of MR
>>> James ghost stories (including those missing from the standard
>>> "collected ghost stories")? Details available at:
>>>
>>> http://www.craftsmanaudio.co.uk/pages/base.html
>>>
>>> I haven't heard the recordings myself, but early responses appear to
>>> be very positive.
>>>
>>> best wishes - Chris
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Coming in on the tail end of this post , I'm not sure if this has been
>> mentioned before , but there is a Librivox Recording of "Ghost Stories of
> an
>> Antiquary" by M R James .
>> Unfortunately the readers do not have the best voices for this kind of
> thing
>> . Horden would be brilliant .
>> There is a small sound sample of Horden on the Craftsfmanaudio web-site .
>> Sheerluck
You made a typo there, the reader of the Craftsman edition is not
Michael Hordern but David Collings.
Anyway, I have volume 1 of the new Craftsman edition (vol. 2 should be
released soon) and it is very good indeed.
An excellent listen during my daily commute.
> Ooops!
> Forgot to give the link for the Librivox recording .
> http://librivox.org/ghost-stories-of-an-antiquary-by-m-r-james/
> Sheerluck
This reading is indeed terribly boring.
Tom
Zarok
> "Sheerluck" <sheerluckhol...@dreamon.com.au> wrote in message
Also the now discounted first volume in the BBC's new DVD release:
http://www.bbcshop.com/invt/9781405678148%26bklist%3Dicat%2C5%2C%2C7%2C428%2C465
I have three and a half of the four Hordern collections;
unforgiveably, an Ebay seller sold me the last ('A Warning To The
Curious') without bothering to check whether both tapes were actually
in the box.
huw....@gmail.com
>
> I have three and a half of the four Hordern collections;
> unforgiveably, an Ebay seller sold me the last ('A Warning To The
> Curious') without bothering to check whether both tapes were actually
> in the box.
Has anyone heard the Derek Jacobi readings? I'd imagine they'd be
pretty good.
Huw
Rick Kennett
> > Forgot to give the link for the Librivox recording .
> > http://librivox.org/ghost-stories-of-an-antiquary-by-m-r-james/
> > Sheerluck
>
> This reading is indeed terribly boring.
>
> Tom
I have all the Libravox reading of the James stories and I was going
to disagree with you about them being boring. But I've just had a re-
listen to one of the Libravox readings and, while not boring as such,
they are colourless especially compared to the Michael Hordern
readings.
Rick
Foodie
"colourless" is indeed perhaps a better description. Anyway, it doesn't
really pull you in. I listened to a few of the Hordern readings and
they are very convincing. I bought the recent Craftsman set and I'd say
that those readings are just as convincing as the Hordern ones.
Tom