Montague Rhodes James was born on 1st August 1862 and, as M.R. James, is best known to the general public as a writer of remarkable ghost stories. He was also a medievalist scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge and later of Eton College.

James dismantled and did away with many of the existing concepts of ghost stories. Instead his stories were placed in a more realistic and contemporary setting. His protagonists were usually quite reserved or shy and led the reader into the horrible but exquisite agony of telling themselves – as they were drawn relentlessly in – that, there but for the grace of God...

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