Montague Rhodes James, (or Monty to his friends), was born on August 1st 1862, the fourth child of Herbert and Mary James. Perhaps it is the way he uses the short story platform for his story telling rather than the novel that makes him so successful in this genre – so successful that he is considered the ‘Father of the Modern Ghost Story’ and that no ghost story anthology can be truly complete without one of his stories. Other than these examples, James’s work has been continually dramatized for both the radio and television since 1938, and since Christmas 2000, connoisseurs and ghost story fans have been treated to eight new M R James television dramatizations, two documentaries and approximately twelve radio dramatizations. Despite remaining in the shadows, his influence remains as strong as ever, influencing such authors as Ruth Rendell, H R Wakefield, Ramsey Campbell Mark Gatiss and with her 2010 novel, Dark Matter, Michelle Paver. The Ring borrows heavily from Casting the Runes and The Treasure of Abbot Thomas. Shrieker) in 1998, directed by Victoria Sloan which borrowed heavily on both Casting the Runes, and H R Wakefields’ He Cometh and He Passeth By, which is an imitation of James’s story.) (There was a badly made version called Shriek (US. Night of the Demon remains the only cinematic outing for any of his tales. As with all his work, MR James strikes at your imagination by just giving you the bare essentials and leaves your imagination to fill in the gory details.įor example, both The Ring (2002) and Drag Me To Hell (2009), borrow heavily from his works – especially Drag Me To Hell, which is an unacknowledged remake of 1957’s classic Night of the Demon whose main premise is James’s 1911 short story Casting the Runes. There is one author, whose influence is as strongly felt in both current literature as well as film despite few people knowing his work and that author is Montague Rhodes James. Isaac Asimov single handily redefined the Science Fiction genre with his three laws of robotics. For example, J R R Tolkien unwittingly created, almost single handily the fantasy genre and his style has been widely copied.

The collected ghost stories of mr james