Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936), who wrote as M. R. James, was an English author, medieval scholar, and provost of King's College, Cambridge, and of Eton College. He is best known for his outstanding ghost stories. James reinvented the ghost story for the modern audience by moving away from Gothic elements and using realistic contemporary settings. His protagonists and plots often reflected his own antiquarian interests.
'A School Story' is an intriguing ghost tale set in a private school near London. During a lesson one of the boys finds himself writing a strange sentence in Latin which he himself cannot properly explain. When the teacher reads it, he turns pale and appears to become suddenly very ill. A week or so later, again during class, another even more mysterious Latin message appears...and then events turn very strange and sinister indeed.