Those of you with children with a penchant for creative writing (and ghost stories!) may be interested in a new story competition organised to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of the legendary British ghost story author, M.R. James.
Recently an incomplete and previously unpublished short story by James, The Game of Bear, was discovered in the archives of King’s College Cambridge, and the Suffolk Coast, a tourism organisation set up to promote the Suffolk area, have organised a competition for children under 16 asking them to come up with an ending for the story. The competition will be judged by the award-winning children’s author Susan Hill, whose classic ghost novel The Woman in Black was recently successfully translated into a hit movie starring Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame.
M.R. James was born on 1st August 1862 and spent much of his childhood in Suffolk, which provided the backdrop and inspiration for many of his phenominally successful short ghost stories such as A Warning to the Curious and Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad. H.P. Lovercraft and Stephen King are among the many horror novelists who have been influenced by James’ work.
The Library has several books by and about M.R. James life and work, including a couple of television adaptions of his work on DVD. We also have many other suitably spooky tales by other classic authors such as messers Lovecraft and King (and Susan Hill!) among our literature section, including several horror novels among our new leisure reading section on Level 3. Why not have a browse and take something ‘orrible ‘ome?
For further details of the story competition, visit the Suffolk Coast website here.
M.R. James book jacket image by Robert Burdock, reproduced under CC License from Flickr.
