This CD comprises several of M. R. James's famous ghost stories and is generally very well done. The acting is effective, as other reviewers have noted, and the stories are intrinsically intriguing. I think Derek Jacobi's opening and closing narrations are particularly effective (his voice is perfect for his role of narrator).
However, there are a couple of negative aspects to this CD: firstly, the dramatisations are really short, so that inevitably a lot of material from the original stories gets left out; and secondly, the dramatisations significantly change some elements of the story - for example, in the dramatised version of the superb story, 'Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad', Professor Parkins does not discover the whistle by himself (alone), but in the company of a rather young-sounding Colonel Wilson (this is at variance with the original story). Furthermore, the voices of the two actors who portray Parkins and Wilson respectively are confusingly similar, so that it took me two or three listenings before I could be sure which character it was who was supposed to be speaking at any given time.
On balance, I think that hearing the stories read in their entirety is preferable to these dramatisations, but the latter are certainly very fine and enjoyable as a lightweight 'back-up' to the full tales themselves.
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