The 2nd of March (today) is Saint Chad’s Day.
Chad was a prominent 7th century Anglo-Saxon churchman, who became abbot of several monasteries, Bishop of the Northumbrians and subsequently Bishop of the Mercians and Lindsey People. He was later canonised as a saint. He features strongly in the work of Bede the Venerable and is credited, together with his brother Saint Cedd, with introducing Christianity to the Mercian kingdom.
Chad is also an important character in the old English legend of The Two Princes.
Someone who would almost certainly have known all that without having to look it up like I just did is the late great Montague Rhodes James.
I’m a massive fan of M. R. James’ ghost stories and though you don’t yet know it, not until you read these following words, Leah and I have had the pleasure of adapting quite a few of them into our preferred medium of comics. More on that as and when there is actually more to say. I, personally, will be saying some more about it at the end of the month (Sat 28th) when I attend the M. R. James and the Modern Ghost Story one day conference in Leeds.
I’ll be giving a 20 minute talk entitled ‘Adapting James’s work into graphic stories’ in The Leeds Library at 14:25.
If you’re a fan of James – a listener to A Podcast to the Curious, a reader of Ghosts & Scholars, a watcher of A Ghost Story for Christmas, maybe – then the conference is definitely something you should check out if you can. I’d certainly be attending even if I wasn’t speaking. It’s £40 for the day ( £35 concessions) and registration closes on the 14th of March.