Episode 60 – The Signal-Man by Charles Dickens

A Podcast to the Curious - The M.R. James Podcast

We’re back! This week Mike and Will descend gingerly into a gloomy railway cutting to investigate Charles Dickens’ The Signal-Man. Dickens dissects the harsh realities of life in industrial Britain, but can he also deliver a pleasing terror and a locomotive-sized Jamesian Wallop? (spoiler: yes, in spades)

Show notes:

• Higham Station was the closest to Dickens’ home at Gads Hill Place and he’d have had plenty of time to contemplate it’s formidable tunnel.
• Fatal crashes and accidents were by no means rare in the early days of the railways. Dickens was himself involved in a hideous rail crash while in the company of his mistress and her mother, as memorialised in the picture above. Mike mentioned hearing about the Thirsk rail disaster on the excellent podcast Note to Self – he didn’t, but admits it was actually on a lecture about sleep on BBC Radio 3.
• An approachable essay on Dickens and the Trauma of Technology, which covers some of the main themes of the story.
• Oldstyle Tales Press have released a wonderful edition of Dickens’ ghost stories with great footnotes and illustrations (disclaimer – we were kindly sent a couple of free copies by the lovely editor, Michael Grant Kellermeyer).
• Another slim edition worth getting hold of is by Profile Books, which includes the incredibly funny story The Boy At Mugby Junction – I would like to say that railway catering has improved in the UK, but it’s only by degrees.
• And of course, please check out the BFI Ghost Story for Christmas DVD, including LGC’s dramatisation of the Signal-Man.
• Huge thanks to our reader this week, Mike’s very own father in law… Mike. Yes, it gets confusing.

Finally, a huge apology from me (Mike) for the delay in getting this out – we ain’t dead yet!