Episode 4 – The Ash-tree

In this post-Halloween spook-tacular of an episode, your hosts Mike and Will attempt to answer the following thorny questions:

1. Is it unlucky to sleep in a room near an ash tree?
2. Is Mrs Mothersole a MILF?
3. Are you down with the Castringham Sickness?

If you answered ‘yes’ to one or more of the above then pull your deep leather armchair closer to the roaring fire, refill your glass of port and prepare to join Mike and Will as they delve into dark and devilish goings on in 17th & 18th century  rural Suffolk in M.R. James’s The Ash-tree!

Big thanks to Katy Ross (@dreamkitten) who was our reader for this episode.

Links

• Great Livermere on GoogleMaps
  M.R. James grew up in Great Livermere and it is widely believed to be the inspiration for Castringham, the setting of ‘The Ash-tree’.
• Photo of Livermere Hall
  Sadly the hall on which Castringham Hall was based was demolished in 1923 but a photo of it can be found at the Lost Heritage website. Note the extensive growth of foliage visible around the sides of the hall!
• ‘The Ash-tree’ story notes at Ghosts & Scholars
  Exemplary M.R. James resource Ghosts & Scholars features an excellent set of story notes on The Ash-tree penned by M.R. James expert Rosemary Pardoe.
• James & Great Livermere at SuffolkCoast.co.uk
  An interesting article about James’s connection to Great Livermere and stories it inspired.
• Sortes Sanctorum & Sortes Biblicae at Wikipedia
  The history and origins of using the Bible for divination.
• Spiders in ‘The Ash Tree’ by Jacqueline Simpson
  An article from the Ghosts & Scholars Newsletter no. 5 on James’s use of spiders in The Ash-tree, with particular reference to a peculiar mini-plague of spiders that hit Bury St. Edmond’s in 1660!
• Bible Quotes from The Ash-tree @ Bible.cc
  ‘Cut it down’ – Luke 13:9
  ‘It shall never be inhabited’ – Isaiah 13:20
  ‘Her young ones also suck up blood’ – Job 29:30
  ‘Thou shall seek me in the morning and I shall not be’ – Job 7:21