Round the Herne

 My reading of chapters two and three of M R James' (1922) children's fantasy book "The Five Jars". The narrator discovers the power of the magical potions for the ears and eyes. New worlds open up before him!

 My reading of the first chapter of M R James' (1922) children's book "The Five Jars", in which the unnamed narrator encounters a magical stream and a mysterious plant. Trying a variant format for the recording using the Loom platform, to see which people prefer most.

  My reading (a first draft, I will re-record this as an audio when my throat has recovered) of Lovecraft's short story "He" (1925). The way he describes New York in this story, as a place made very alien to him, is largely how I feel when making very infrequent visits to London. The idea of a metropolis being built over formerly sacred (or unhallowed) sites is a familiar one and this keys in with ideas I have been exploring in Folklore Studies - the academic examination of folktales. One particular idea has been drawing my attention, that of ostension. Aside from its more regular meaning (of presenting something to the attention of others), in folklore terms ostension is how either reality imitates folklore (such as when people try and do something they have heard about in a folktale or urban myth - like going down the sewers to hunt alligators) or when they deliberately create a new tale such as starting rumours about some dilapidated house being haunted and then others...

  My reading of Lovecraft's short story "The Outsider" (1926), apologies for the throat - still not quite recovered from this virus. The twist in the tale is, perhaps, a little predictable but it's still a fun tale to read with its torrid turn of phrase. I can see the influences of this story on one of my favourite authors, Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes, who often wrote about the underworld of strange beings. Once my throat is back to normal I might record some of these stories as straight audios without the video element.

 Happy 2025 to my followers (both of you). This is m y reading (apologies for the rasping throat, recovering from a mild infection) of H P Lovecraft's florid tale of "The Hound" (1924). The book was a Yuletide gift from a close friend who knows my literary tastes. The two central characters of this tale (St John and the unnamed narrator) put me in mind of the wealthy adolescent murderers Loeb and Leopold who abducted and killed a child to prove their own intellectual superiority in 1924. That said, this story was written a couple of years before the crime took place, so they were clearly not the inspiration for Lovecraft - though maybe he had met people very much like them within his social circles. When my throats recovers, I might record a few more of the shorter stories.

 I dreamt up this story for the Invocations concert held in Bungay a couple of months back, where I was acting as MC and sharing stories and poetry in between acts. This was my final tale of the night. It is inspired by Suffolk folklore, including the story of the village of Woolpit (which derives its name from wolf-pit, nothing to do with sheep). The music and graphics were arranged by my friend, the Australian Pixie, using Canva (which is way beyond my technical capacities).