EnCrypted Episode 3: 'Mrs Amworth' by E.F. Benson

 

E.F. Benson, brother of R.H. (novelist and Roman Catholic apologist), A.C. (author of 'Land of Hope and Glory') and Maggie (author and Egyptologist), was a prolific writer of novels and short stories, as well as a talented figure skater. Arguably better remembered today for his witty Mapp and Lucia books, Benson also had a taste for 'weird fiction', or 'spook stories' as he called them. Indeed, he was a friend of M.R. James and had even attended some of James' infamous readings which perhaps explains how he came to take on the mantle of being one of England's foremost writers of supernatural short stories.

But where James often preferred to shy away from overt and gruesome horror, Benson seemed drawn to it. One only has to call to mind such tales as Caterpillars with its writhing, wriggling mass of ghastly pincered larvae, or the hideous giant worm of Negotium Perambulans, to get the measure of Benson's lurid imagination.

Mrs Amworth - one of his best-known works - also has a bloody finale, one all the more shocking for its charming village idyll setting.

Benson's stories often notably centre around (strictly platonic) close male friendships, as this one does, but in Mrs Amworth he also gives us a memorable female character, a vivacious social butterfly who, upon moving into the quaint village of Maxley, charms its residents with her good-natured bonhomie. But what really happened to her husband in India? And what is the secret of her ancestry?

Episode 3 of EnCrypted serves up another slice of classic horror for you to sink your teeth into.

Your immortal servant,

Jasper

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About the episode:

"Mrs Amworth" by E.F. Benson was first published in the collection Visible and Invisible (1923, Hutchinson & Co.).  Source text online.

Theme music: The Black Waltz by Scott Buckley | www.scottbuckley.com.au Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/  

Incidental music: Unseen Horrors Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/

Other music sourced at: https://www.chosic.com/ 

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 The recording was created using Bandlab and shared via Anchor.

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