Ally Sloper

Cartoon character created by Charles Ross, the first continuing comic-strip hero.

Curate’s egg

English language idiom used in reference to something that is partly good and partly bad.

Rats

Ghost story by M. R. James first published in 1929, about a locked room containing the remains of a gibbeted former owner.

A Vignette

Ghost story by M. R. James, first published in 1936, about a semi-autobiographical episode in James’s early life.

The Diary of Mr Poynter

Ghost story by M. R. James, first published in 1919, about an apparently possessed scrap of chintz, said to be a memorial to the hair of a 17th-century nobleman.

The Uncommon Prayer-Book

Horror story by M. R. James published in 1925, about the theft of a number of prayer-books repeatedly found to be open at a particular psalm, despite being stored in a locked and disused church.

A Neighbour’s Landmark

Ghost story by M. R. James published in 1925, about the disappearance of a woman who steals her neighbour’s property by removing a cursed landmark.

A Warning to the Curious

Horror story by M. R. James first published in 1925, about the events following the discovery of an Anglo-Saxon crown.