Episode 8 – The Treasure of Abbot Thomas

In this episode Will & Mike follow M.R. James on a terrifying treasure hunt to Germany in ‘The Treasure of Abbot Thomas’.

Show notes:

• Steinfeld Abbey & Glass (also see Googlemaps)
  Read about the read-world location of this story on wikipedia.
• The Treasure of Steinfeld Abbey, A Visit to the Scene of “The Treasure of Abbot Thomas” by Helen Grant
  Interesting account of a visit to Steinfeld, in which Helen Grant compares the real abbey to the one described by M.R. James.
• Ashridge Park
  This story was inspired by James’s own study of the stained glass at Ashridge Park in 1904. The glass is now in the Victoria & Albert museum in London, and the park is now home to Ashridge Business School (check out the cool virtual tour!)
• Steinfeld stained glass in Wales
  To illustrate how widely glass from Germany and Belguim circulated in Britain, here some more of the Steinfeld stained glass shows up in a church in Wales!
• Review at GhostingImages.com
  An excellent review of the 1974 tv version.
• Origin of “Gare à qui la touche” (“Woe to he that touches it”)
  The origin of this ominous phrase appears to be Napoleonic!
• An Introduction to Classical Cryptography by William Stalling
  A useful guide for those who wish to get their head around the cryptographic puzzles solved by Mr Somerton.
• ‘A Pleasing Terror’ (Ash Tree Press)
  This definitive anthology of and commentary on James work is now available as an e-book.
• Ghost Stories of Christmas at the BFI Mediateque
  You can currently watch the BBC’s classic M.R. James tv adaptations at the BFI Mediateque centres.