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Felixstowe Nub News delves into the poetry of Felixstowe inspired M.R. James.

M.R. James (Montague Rhodes James), born August 1 1862, was a medievalist scholar but is most likely to be best remembered for his ghost stories.

Considered among the best of the genre, he redefined the genre by abandoning the more traditional Gothic features in favour of more realistic settings.

James' home from the age of three was the Rectory in Great Livermere, Suffolk. His Suffolk background inspired the location of his stories, including a few of his most famous stories being inspired by Felixstowe.

One such story is James' "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad," included in his collection "Ghost Stories of an Antiquary" (1904). The story is named after Robert Burns' 1793 poem of the same name.

The setting of this particular story is in Burnstow, a fictionalised version of Felixstowe. The protagonist, Parkins, is a professor of Cambridge University on holiday in Burnstow. Upon investigating the ground of a nearby preceptory, he finds an ancient bronze whistle. This find has supernatural consequences.

Illustration by James McBryde for M. R. James's story

The BBC made two adaptations of the story; one in 1968, directed by Jonathan Miller and starring Michael Hordern, and again in 2010, starring John Hurt and Sophie Thompson.

The second story, "The Tractate Middoth," was published in 1911 in "More Ghost Stories."

It tells the story of Mr. Garrett, a University library employee, who is in search for a Mishnaic tractate for a library patron named John Eldred. In his search, he meets a clergyman who is also interested in the book. However, the clergyman's appearance is startling, his head is enshrouded in cobwebs and he smells of mould and dust. He is then sent to the seaside, Burnstow again, to recover.

H.P. Lovecraft, American Science Fiction novelist who is most famous for "The Call of Cthulhu," was an admirer of James' work. His admiration went so far as Lovecraft praising the stories as the peak of the ghost story form.

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