A press release from the British Fantasy Society:
Stephen Jones and Les Edwards will sign their new M.R. James collection, Curious Warnings: The Great Ghost Stories of M.R. James, on Saturday, June 16th, in London.
Jo Fletcher Books will officially launch the stunning new hardcover collection at the British Fantasy Society Open Day, The Mug House, 1 Tooley Street, London E1 2PF, from 1:00 pm until late.
Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the birth of M.R. James, the book contains all the author’s classic supernatural stories collected in a single volume, including the children’s novel The Five Jars, along with uncompleted works, essays, and a historical Afterword by Stephen Jones, all illustrated by award-winning artist Les Edwards.
Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936) was Provost of King’s College, Cambridge, and Eton. Most of his ghost stories were occasional pieces, written for friends or college magazines, and were collected in 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). Widely regarded as one of the finest authors of supernatural fiction in the English language, James is credited as the originator of the “antiquarian ghost story”, replacing the Gothic horrors of the previous century with more contemporary settings for his subtle hauntings. Many of his stories were originally written as Christmas entertainments and were read aloud by the author to selected gatherings of friends.
Curious Warnings: The Great Ghost Stories of M.R. James is the one collection of the author’s work that fans cannot afford to miss! There will also be other signings throughout the BFS Open Day, and numerous authors, artists, editors and publishers will be in attendance. Entrance is free and open to anyone, so if you like fantasy, horror and imaginative fiction, then come along for a fun day out!
We also plan to launch Alt-Zombie edited by Peter Mark May (Hersham Horror).
For more details about the BFS Open Day, see this page.