Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You My Lad
‘For some minutes he lay and pondered over the possibilities; then he turned over sharply, and with his eyes open lay breathlessly listening. There had been a movement, he was sure, in the empty bed on the opposite side of the room.’
Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You My Lad – M. R. James
Welcome to the M. R. James countdown to Halloween. I must admit that I was looking forward to re-reading ‘Oh Whistle and I’ll come to you my lad’ again. I knew it was good but it’s miles better than I remembered and several long windswept beaches better than the 1968 T.V. adaptation, or the interesting but disappointingly unfaithful 2010 version.
If you read a full synopsis of the plot, I admit it sounds a little silly: ‘academic goes on holiday, digs up a whistle on an archaeological site he has no business disturbing, blows whistle and gets attacked by a bed sheet.’
It’s not.
There’s something universally chilling at the thought of waking up in a room you know to be empty and hearing something move in the darkness. Professor Parkins is a classic M. R. James character too: a dry, pedantic, non-believer with an inexplicable golf obsession. He makes an unlikely hero, but he’s the perfect character in a story like this where the reader is screaming ‘no, it’s not the wind, check-out of your room now, idiot!’. The story is subtly unsettling and beautifully constructed, so by the end you’re worried for him while simultaneously monitoring your duvet for demonic possession.
Alright, there are some silly bits (giggling house maids, ahem) but they reflect the time it’s written. If you’re not in the mood for a ghost story — shame on you — you could always read it as ‘Professor Parkins goes on holiday and everyone tries to get in his bed’, because they really do. Honestly, they do. There’s potentially a lot of unrequited love directed at Prof Parkins.
Verdict
**** (4 screaming nightmares out of 5)
You’ll never look at a spare bed in the same way.
M. R. James bingo
A classic tale this one, lots of trouble, archaeological sacrilege, ignoring the blindingly obvious and golf. 19th century snobbery definitely in play when it comes to housemaids and small boys. No defaced, stolen or book assaults though. So close…
- Ditching friends or offers of company on holiday
- Getting into trouble on said holiday
Book abuse- Ignoring the blindingly obvious hints of others
- Golf
- Interfering with an archaeological site
- 19th century snobbery
The Story
The story can be found in James’s anthology Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904) and is included in most later collections of his stories. Depending on your country and copyright restrictions, you may be able to access the book legally and for free via Project Gutenberg.
The lovely people at literature wiki have put together a frighteningly detailed synopsis here.
K.M. Cooke 