Monday, October 15, 2018

Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad


Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad is a 1904 ghost story by M.R. James. It begins,
'I suppose you will be getting away pretty soon, now Fall term is over, Professor,' said a person not in the story to the Professor of Ontography, soon after they had sat down next to each other at a feast in the hospitable hall of St James's College.

The Professor was young, neat, and precise in speech. 'Yes,' he said; 'my friends have been making me take up golf this term, and I mean to go to the East Coast - in point of fact to Burnstow - (I dare say you know it) for a week or ten days, to improve my game. I hope to get off tomorrow.'

'Oh, Parkins,' said his neighbour on the other side, 'if you are going to Burnstow, I wish you would look at the site of the Templars' preceptory, and let me know if you think it would be any good to have a dig there in the summer.'

It was, as you might suppose, a person of antiquarian pursuits who said this, but, since he merely appears in this prologue, there is no need to give his entitlements.

'Certainly,' said Parkins, the Professor: 'if you will describe to me whereabouts the site is, I will do my best to give you an idea of the lie of the land when I get back; or I could write to you about it, if you would tell me where you are likely to be.'

'Don't trouble to do that, thanks. It's only that I'm thinking of taking my family in that direction in the Long, and it occurred to me that, as very few of the English preceptories have ever been properly planned, I might have an opportunity of doing something useful on offdays.'

The Professor rather sniffed at the idea that planning out a preceptory could be described as useful. His neighbour continued:

'The site - I doubt if there is anything showing above ground - must be down quite close to the beach now. The sea has encroached tremendously, as you know, all along that bit of coast. I should think, from the map, that it must be about three-quarters of a mile from the Globe Inn, at the north end of the town.

You can read it online here and listen to it here. It has been adapted for television twice, once in 1968 directed by Jonathan Miller and starring Michael Hordern:



and again in 2010 starring John Hurt:

10 comments:

  1. OK, I'll listen to it later tonight when I have actually caught up on all the posts. Right now, I'm wasting time trying to find out why my blog comments show up as full page as Barbara suggests.

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    1. I'm not having trouble with comment forms on anybody's blog no matter how it's set up. Of course, that might change :( I'm sorry this is happening to you and hope it gets straightened out. Frustrating!

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  2. i love John Hurt. Looks like I'll have something to watch while Himself watches the Red Sox

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    1. I hope you like it. The used to do more adaptations of these old tales. I'm looking forward to the upcoming Woman in White on Public tv. I loved that book.

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  3. I'll read a little more online. I'm not good with ghost stories but especially before bed. I truly hope there are no ghosts.

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    1. Ghosts would be scary, I think. I go through life assuming there's no such thing :)

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  4. I love this story, we read it at school and I have seen the older film. The woman in white is good, too, I saw a German film of it many years, back. Have great day, Valerie

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    1. I didn't know there was a German adaptation of Woman in White! Thx! I'll keep an eye out for that :)

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  5. They were both a bit confusing, but I liked the one with John Hurt better. :)

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    1. Michael Hordern is a favorite around here. I'll watch him in anything. You can't go wrong with John Hurt, though.

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