Round the Herne

 My reading of the fifth and final stave of Charles Dickens' delightful "A Christmas Carol". In the final chapter, Scrooge is redeemed of his wicked ways.

 My reading of the fifth stave of Charles Dickens' classic tale "A Christmas Carol". In which the horrifying spectre of the Ghost of Christmas yet To Come appears before Scrooge and torments him with visions of the future (including one of the most evocative scenes in the book, Old Joe's business premises).

 My reading of the third stave of Charles Dickens' classic tale "A Christmas Carol". Scrooge meets with the bountiful Ghost of Christmas Present, learns about the happiness of others... but also if left with a dire warning.

 My reading of the second stave of Charles Dickens 1843 classic "A Christmas Carol". In this chapter, Scrooge encounters the Ghost of Christmas Past and relieves the highs and lows of his earlier life.

 My reading of the first stave of Charles Dickens' 1843 classic story "A Christmas Carol", I hope to get the other four staves recorded and up before the 25th rolls around. Seasons greetings ones and all.

 To celebrate Halloween 2025, here's a recording of Shane Leslie's 1931 short story (or, really, two stories glued together) about spooky goings on. The weather is looking a bit high risk for anyone contemplating a besom ride later tonight.

 All five parts of my reading of Forrest Reid's supernatural teen romance "The Garden God" (1905). This is a somewhat controversial work, when it was published same-sex romances were illegal and, whilst there is no sex and it is all sighing and gazing rather than anything else, it was still incendiary ground for any author to tread upon. Even today the work is challenging, given that the main characters in the flashback sequences are about 16-years old. Teen romance novels have become very popular of late, but some of us are sufficiently old and crusty that we would sooner ignore adolescent crushes! However, this work follows the same intensely lyrical style that Oscar Wilde adopted, including the same great love of Greek mythology that weaves throughout this short story, and the vivid embrace of nature imagery. Reid, like his fellow Irishman Wilde, was clearly deeply wedded to the countryside. The supernatural elements are low-key, mostly centred around the possibility t...

 My reading of a children's story by Anna Wahlenberg (1910) from the lovely book  "Swedish Folk and Fairy Tales" (with delightful illustrations by the Swedish artist John Bauer). With Yuletide on the horizon, it's well worth tracking down a copy - would make for a lovely gift. Apologies for the unspeakable attempt at an accent for young Peder Lars, but I couldn't resist the lure of hamming it up. I might do some of the other stories at a later date, if I get the time.

 My reading of H P Lovecraft's 1922 short story "Celephais" which warns the reader about the seductive danger of fantasy and daydreaming, luring people away from engaging in the world around them. Unusually for Lovecraft, there are no real squeamish horrors eating people's brains or turning their souls into earrings - however, the creeping madness is ever present.

  My recording of H P Lovecraft's (1920) short story " Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family", a tale which suggests that it is sometimes better not to delve too deeply into one's genealogy. This story is from the same collection that I have previously recorded other Lovecraft tales from.

 Earlier this month we had the third annual Suffolk Jungian Symposium at West Suffolk College. My contribution to the day was a talk applying Jungian principles to Oscar Wilde's novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (which also has plenty to say about the human psyche in general and not just as a bit of pretentious lit-crit. The recording of the original event did not come out at all well, so this is a slightly more rambling version of the same thing.

My reading of the twelfth and final chapter of Kenneth Grahame's lovely children's classic, "The Wind in the Willows" (1908). The heroes besiege the Wild Wooders who have taken over Toad Hall - will they succeed in putting the world to rights? Well, duh! I rather enjoyed recording this (even if the listeners didn't!) and it's one off my bucket list. I'll give it a breather and do other things before I think about recording any more books.

 My reading of the penultimate chapter of Kenneth Grahame's classic story "The Wind in the Willows" (1908). Toad is reunited with his friends but finds that disaster has befallen his ancestral home during his incarceration. 

 My reading of the tenth chapter of Kenneth Grahame's delightful classic "The Wind in the Willows" (1908). Toad's flight to freedom continues, peppered with meetings with a variety of characters with highly unconvincing accents.

 My reading of the ninth chapter of Kenneth Grahame's beautifully lyrical "The Wind in the Willows" (1908). I love the sophistication of language, delivered confident in the assumption that children would understand it - back in the day when things were not dumbed down. Anyway, the story moves on to Mr Rat and his encounter with both the call of the seasons and a seafaring Rat filled with tales of the briny deep. Went for a wander down by the River Gipping this afternoon, just to get in the mood for Grahame's story.

 My reading of the eighth chapter of Kenneth Grahame's 1908 children's classic "The Wind in the Willows". Mr Toad makes a daring prison break in a scene guaranteed to inspire thoughts of criminality in anyone listening to it!

 My reading of my favourite chapter (the seventh one) of Kenneth Grahame's 1908 children's classic "The Wind in the Willows". Here a baby otter goes missing and, on the adventure to find him, the friends encounter Pan Himself - in a scene that still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up even after multiple readings. I do wonder if this scene came to Grahame as some kind of dream of visionary experience - to me it feels like a genuine spiritual encounter and it sits quite strangely in the wider story.

 My reading of the sixth chapter of Kenneth Grahame's 1908 children's book "The Wind in the Willows". In this part of the story an intervention is staged to deal with Toad's obsession with cars - and the miscreant goes totally off the rails.

 My reading of the fifth chapter of Kenneth Grahame's 1908 children's fantasy "The Wind in the Willows". In this chapter, Mole experiences the irrevocable call of home, drawing him back to his tunnels and the gentle joys that they hold. Apologies for the execrable 'singing', but that's field mice for you.

 My reading of the fourth chapter of Kenneth Grahame's 1908 children's story "The Wind in the Willows". Mole finally gets to meet with Badger in his home deep in the Wild Woods.