A Certain Slant of Light

Paul Ferrers had been in post at King’s College, Cambridge, for over a year before he made any effort to explore the eastern counties in search of associations with M.R. James. His Visiting Professorship in Gothic Literature – which, at thirty-one, he had done well to achieve – was imposing a more considerable burden than such an esteemed position would have done in the days of the Great Man.

Cambridge, moreover, had proved to be no longer the tranquil realm of cyclists and scholars, but a vulgar, traffic-ravaged den of nouveau riche iniquity. It was a difficult and pricy place to find a property commensurate with his status, not to speak of his startlingly meagre salary, which scarcely matched that of a junior professor back at his alma mater in New Hampshire. He had settled for a suite of draughty rooms in College, which certainly showed little change since Dr James had read his candlelit tales.