Robert Irwin: The Runes Have Been Cast

The latest addition to my website is Robert Irwin‘s The Runes Have Been Cast. This is a very funny spoof campus novel/spoof ghost story, set in the early 1960s. Two Oxford University English lit students have been asked to write on the Victorian ghost story, and this gives us a lead-in to many references to ghosts and the like, particularly inspired by the works of M. R. James. Lancelyn gets a first and heads to St Andrews University, where he gets involved in academic politics as well as arcane English literature, while Bernard gets a starred first and stays at Oxford. Coming between them is Molly, who switches her favours more than once. The ghosts are hovering, people turn out not to be who they seem to be and Irwin mocks ghosts, academics, English lit, sex and anything else that passes by. It is great fun and you will also learn about authors and books you have never heard of.

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