A Vignette

"A Vignette" is a short ghost story by the British author M.R. James. It is the last story that James wrote. It was first published some five months after the author's death in the November 1936 issue of the literary journal London Mercury.

The story's unnamed narrator and protagonist describes a ghostly event from his childhood. As a boy, the narrator lives in a rectory in the countryside. Next to the rectory is a small wood known as the Plantation. Although he is not really certain why, the narrator becomes increasingly scared of the Plantation and starts to have nightmares connected to it.

It is widely believed that "A Vignette" is based on a genuine experience from M.R. James' boyhood. As a child, M.R. James lived in the Suffolk village of Great Livermere where his father was rector. A small wood in Great Livermere known as the Oldbroom Plantation is reputed to be haunted.

ghost story, horror, fear, short story, classic