This book is the retelling of a mediaeval ghost story originally written in Latin by a monk in the 1400s. It was unearthed amongst the Royal Collection in the British Museum by another ghost writer, M.R. James in the 1920's and adapted here by distinguished historian and TV presenter Dan Jones.
It is an interesting if short curio from the distant past, made all the more fascinating by Dan's introduction explaining the origin of the piece.

I loved the fact that the writer gave a detailed history of the origins of this ghost story, where he came across it and why he wanted to retell it.

A great short read.

A great little book!!
Dan Jones always knows his history and the love of it really shines through here.
A little ghost story from 1400 translated from the original Latin writings. Not exactly scary but fun and interesting to read!

“A late-medieval humdinger”

Is how Dan Jones describes The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings, but I found the origins of this medieval ghost story almost more fascinating than the story itself

M.R. James, Cambridge scholar and himself a writer of ghost stories, was leafing through the archives of the British Museum in the 1920’s when he found a reference to a 500-year old volume in the Royal Collection. In itself not peculiar, except for the fact that it contained a dozen medieval ghost stories written in the year AD1400 by a monk at Byland Abbey in Yorkshire. The stories were written two centuries after the bulk of the works in the volume, scribed on empty pages left by the Cistercian monks between snippets of Roman and Christian theological texts

I suspect if I was a 14th Century labourer with a limited education and a fear of purgatory, hell hounds and being cast out of the Church, then I would have been terrified of Snowball the Tailor’s story, but even with my limited ability to tolerate horror, I didn’t find it scary. What I loved about the Tale was how very local it felt. The writer obviously knew the roads between Gilling, Ampleforth and York and it felt very strongly of both its time and place. My biggest question that will, no doubt, remain unanswered, was what was the purpose of these stories; entertainment, moralising or perhaps a chronicle of folklore?

A compelling piece of history and I was weekly excited to se a picture of the page of the original manuscript at the back of the book. This is a short read and one to pick up on a dark, cold night with bare tree branches tapping at the windows

As an avid fan of anything by Dan Jones, I was expecting something wonderfully entertaining and I wasn’t disappointed. The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings is a contemporary retelling of a medieval ghost story unearthed by scholar and author M R James from the salvaged library remains of the once magnificent 12th century Byland Abbey. I love a good ghost story and this is no exception.

I recently read a new edition of "Ghost Stories of an Antiquary" by M. R. James and I was glad to read this story which is new to me.
The story is not scary but it's a good depiction of an age when supernatural was part of everyday life.
I like the MR James nots, the introduction and even try to read some of the original Latin text (my Latin is a bit rusty).
An informative, fascinating and entertaining read.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

As the weather gets colder, the leaves turn brilliant colors and fall from their trees, marking the perfect time of the year to snuggle with a blanket, a cup of tea, and a good spooky tale. Many would reach for a modern supernatural story, but ghost tales have been hiding in archives for centuries. One such story comes from the time of King Richard II. It was first found and transcribed from Latin in 1922 by medievalist M.R. James. Dan Jones has taken on the challenge to retell this story for a modern audience. Initially written by an unknown monk of Byland Abbey, this medieval ghost story is called “The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings.”

I want to thank Head of Zeus Books and NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book. I am a big fan of Dan Jones and his historical nonfiction books, so I was thrilled when I heard about this title.

Our tale begins with the tailor named Snowball and his horse Borin traveling home from Gilling to Ampleforth one November night. All of a sudden, Snowball is attacked by a raven that transforms into a grotesque dog. The dog gives Snowball a mission that only he can complete, to find a specific priest to ask for absolution for a criminal with no name and whose crime we do not know. There will be consequences if he does not return to the same spot where he has met the dog.

To give readers even more information, Jones includes the story of how M.R.James came to find the tale and why he chose to bring this story into the 21st century. He also tells the story of Byland Abbey and includes the original Latin text for those who feel ambitious to translate it themselves.

I am not usually a fan of creepy ghost stories, but I found this tale entirely enthralling, and it sent chills down my back in a matter of pages. Even though Jones does not include that many physical descriptions for characters like Snowball and Borin, I can picture this tale playing out. For his first venture into the world of fiction, I think Jones does a brilliant job, and I hope one day he will make an anthology of medieval ghost stories. If you want a delightfully ghoulish ghost story that is perfect for fall, I highly recommend you read “The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings” by Dan Jones.

Loved this utterly bonkers medieval short story translated from the original Latin. A tailor called Snowball has a few unfortunate ghostly encounters, including one with a green glowing dog! Jones really brings the story to life with some great descriptions.
Nicely illustrated and with some good historical background as well as the original Latin story with notes that Dan Jones has added showing the way that he translated it. Would make a nice Christmas present for someone who likes ghost stories and the medieval period.

This is the perfect reading as we head towards the spooky season, I'd never heard of this story so was very intrigued to read Jones' retelling of the tale.
If like me, you loved hearing ghost stories as a child then this is the perfect short story to take you back to childhood.
It certainly has very creepy aspects and I definitely wouldn't want any of these apparitions appearing to me of an evening walk home especially the king!

The Latin version is also included which although I can't understand the majority was great to try and decipher after reading Jones' version.
I do hope Jones decides to retell more of the original tales as this one was very enjoyable.

It is cold and the tailor just wants to get home to be warm. No chance Ashe is attacked by what appears to be a raven.

This tale may be hundreds of years old and short, but it is a great read. Enjoy.

The cover and blurb attracted me to this book; originally I didn't click that it was written by historian Dan Jones. Based on a medieval manuscript, this is a quirky short story that would make a good stocking filler for anyone who likes a ghost story that is a little bit unusual!

One winter, in the reign of King Richard II (ie: the late 1300s), a tailor is riding home when he is knocked off his horse by a huge raven, which then turns into a hideous dog. The dog tells the tailor he must go to the priest and ask for absolution, or there will be terrible consequences...

This is a short story, so it is hard to say more without giving away the plot. It is well-written, deliciously chilling, but very strange - probably because it is based on an original story written in the 1400s by an unknown monk. According to Amazon the book is 196 pages long, but be aware that the original Latin version is included, along with a foreword by the author. There are also notes at the end, about the history of Byland Abbey. I particularly enjoyed reading them!

So this book would be best suited for someone like me, who loves history, ghost stories, and anything strange and quirky! A perfect short read for Halloween, the hardback would made a good Christmas stocking filler too.


Thank you to Dan Jones and Head of Zeus for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

An enjoyable story, but I quibble at the ghostly aspect, and did feel a little underwhelmed after reading this very brief novel.
Snowball is a tailor on his way home to Ampleforth, who is attacked by a Raven, that then transformed into the ghost of a deceased acquaintance. The ghost has been buried at a crossroads, without masses being said for his soul, which condemns him to purgatory, and he wants Snowball to seek out absolution on his behalf.
The tale was entertaining but, of its time, when people were more God fearing. It did leave me with a few unanswered questions, who was the King, or was that just an expression to show importance in those days? Who was the Soldier, and the Hunter waiting for a horn to blow and set him free, that sounded like King Arthur, sleeping with his Saints!!
As a religious story, that introduced the concept of eternal life and redemption, it would have worked well in the 1400’s. Mediaeval folk would have understood the hidden message, that I can’t quite fathom out.
The best items were the copy of the original Latin manuscript, and the historical observations about Byland Abbey in Yorkshire. I have visited this great ruin, and it must have been truly wonderful in its heyday.
I felt the story ended very shortly and it felt unfinished, perhaps it was read aloud to travellers on the road at Xmas time, and it would have had more of a play vibe about it.
Not for me, but I enjoyed the research. I will leave a review to outlets. A three star read.
My thanks to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for my advance digital copy, that didn’t quite hit the mark. This is my honest review, freely given.

The name of Montague Rhodes James (1862 – 1936) is synonymous with the classic English ghost story. He wrote most of his supernatural tales as Christmas Eve entertainments for friends and students, eventually building a prolific body of stories published in four collections between 1904 and 1925. Jamesians will surely be aware that in his lifetime, James was better known as a medievalist scholar, director of the Fitzwilliam Museum (between 1893 and 1908) and Provost of Eton College (from 1918 until his death).

There is a particular work of his, however, which straddles his scholarly and “ghostly” interests. In the early 1920s, while leafing through a new catalogue of manuscripts at the British Museum, James noticed a reference to an item in the Museum’s “Royal” collection which was supposed to contain a dozen supernatural tales written or collected in the early 1400s by a monk at Byland Abbey in Yorkshire. James sourced the manuscript, copied out all the stories, and transcribed and edited them for publication in the English Historical Review.

The longest of these stories, adapted and expanded by historian Dan Jones, forms the basis of The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings. Its protagonist of the tale is a tailor called Snowball who is visited by a panoply of tormented spirits in the shapes of a raven, a dog, a goat, a bull, a huntsman and a “dead king”. These lost souls enjoin poor Snowball to help them seek deliverance.

In his retelling, Jones opts for a style which sounds suitably archaic while being readable and flowing. The story might seem rather tame to contemporary horror readers, but it provides the same sort of thrill as Jamesian tales. It is not difficult to sense why Monty was intrigued by the story as there are some interesting parallels between the Byland monk’s tale and James’ own stories. James’ supernatural entities are rarely ethereal spirits, and tend to be surprisingly “physical”, much like the raven which topples Snowball from his horse. There is also the concept of the hapless victim (albeit a tailor, in this case, rather than the ‘scholarly character’ favoured by James) who unwittingly ends up embroiled in otherworldly derring-do. M.R. James would also likely have appreciated that, among the weirdness, the occult rituals and occasional profanity, the story ultimately reflects certain Christian concepts of the afterlife and expiation of sins.

The story in this volume is complemented by an introduction by the author, in which he reminisces about his personal rapport with Jamesian ghost stories and their TV adaptations, a brief note on Byland Abbey, once one of the great ecclesiastical monasteries of the North and, most interestingly, the annotated Latin text of Snowball’s adventure as prepared by M.R. James.

I read this volume as an ebook and enjoyed it, but it would probably be much better appreciated in its physical format, where the “concept” of this publication is more attractively served.

The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings, a medieval ghost story that has been retold in a lively fashion by historian Dan Jones, made for an interesting, albeit curious, addition to my Spooky Season reading this year.

First recorded by a monk at Byland Abbey in the early fifteenth century, The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings tells the story of Snowball, a tailor from Ampleforth. One winter’s night, Snowball is riding home from a job in nearby Gilling when he is confronted by a hideous spectre in the shape of a dog.

The ‘dog’, it transpires, is a recently deceased member of the community who, owing to the sins he committed in life, was buried without absolution and is cursed to wander the road until he can find it. Tasking Snowball with seeking absolution from a priest on his behalf, the dog warns the petrified tailor that two other wretched spirits haunt the road – and that failure to return to absolve them may have terrible consequences.

Although transcribed by that great teller of ghostly tales, M. R. James, The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings is a uniquely medieval tale. Whilst there is something very Jamesian in the sense of menace conjured by the lonely road – and in the horrifying appearance of the spectres that appear to poor Snowball – the story is preoccupied by the religious concerns of the early 1400s, and by the very real fear of confronting death without having received absolution for one’s sins.

The story is also wonderfully localised – often naming specific geographic locations across North Yorkshire – and there is a real sense of the community of people that lived and told this tale. There are also some oddly comic moments – such as the intrusion by a nosy but affluent neighbour – and a real sense of time and place, with the story greatly embellished by dialogue and description despite its relative simplicity. Dan Jones’s translation has added a few more details – he has given Snowball’s horse a name, for example – but retains the spirit of the original, as well as of James’s transcription.

The tale itself is very slender – much of the book is taken up with Dan Jones’s lively introduction to Byland Abbey and its curious collection of ghost stories, and with M R James’s own Latin transcription, taken from the original MS (which is now held in the British Library). Whilst James’s transcription is likely to be of interest only to Latin scholars, his notes make for very interesting reading, demonstrating James’s solid scholarship and providing useful glosses to some of the more uniquely medieval aspects of the tale which, I felt, were not wholly explained by Jones in his introduction.

As a scholar of medievalism in my day job, I am reasonably well-versed in the literature and culture of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries so found much to enjoy in The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings. Although more entertaining than exemplary, they reminded me in spirit of some of the medieval mystery plays I’ve read, and of the curious (and often amusing) asides that can occasionally be found in some chronicles.

For the general reader, there were one or two elements that might have benefitted from more explanation, such as the fact that ‘king’ here doesn’t necessarily mean ‘monarch’ but is instead likely to be one of the three ‘dead’: deceased members of the community pictured on the rood screen in the village church, who were often depicted as ‘kings’ in this period. James’s footnotes and glosses to his Latin transcription make this clear but I’m not sure how many readers – especially those not versed in Latin – would discover them, so it would have been helpful to have some religious and social context included in the introduction.

The history of the Byland Abbey ghost stories is, for anyone interested in medieval literature, absolutely fascinating and a good annotated edition of all twelve tales would, I feel, be a welcome addition to scholarship on the period. For now, there is an excellent (and free) online resource from the Byland Abbey Ghost Stories Project which contains both Latin and English transcriptions of all twelve tales, along with short introductions to the project and the manuscript – highly recommended reading if you enjoy this little tale!

For the general reader of ghost stories, Dan Jones’s retelling offers an accessible introduction to a uniquely medieval style of ghost story. Although I read this as an eBook, I imagine the smart hardback will make for a lovely gift over the Halloween and Christmas periods – the perfect story to curl up and escape with with for an hour or two by a roaring fire after family festivities are done.

As someone who loves the medieval period and reading about and from it, I loved this. The lingo can be a bit hard to get your brain around but it is a great short spooky story.

Now if you are not a fan of the medieval period I do not think this is for you, Dan Jones adapted an old short story he found from that period and so the story is very god fearing and old.

But I particularly loved the insights and history behind the story that was provided at the beginning and end by the author.

A dark tale, retold in a compelling manner, this little ghost story would indeed make a suitable Halloween read or a Christmas gift. The story, medieval in origin, has an intriguing back story which itself is quite a detective story. The renowned medievalist M R James rediscovered the original, written down by a monk in around 1400 AD. Dan Jones puts it in context with enough detail but he doesn’t overwhelm with extraneous information.

The main character is a tailor with the delightful name of Snowball and one winter, in King Richard II’s time, he was riding home on the road from Gilling to Ampleforth. It was a suitably atmospheric and miserable evening. Spooky noises ensue and Snowball is knocked from his horse by a raven who transforms into a smelly, disgusting, and terrifying dog. This dog issues instructions to Snowball which must be fulfilled or there will be consequences.

What happens next is slightly comic, derogatory of the church, and downright scarily ghostly.

Dan Jones has done a good job of bringing this old tale back to life and he says, “I hope it conveys the marvellous spirit of the original”. Having checked out a modern translation (www.bylandghosts.com) I think he really has.

Thanks #NetGalley and #HeadOfZeusLtd for the eARC

This is a deliciously unsettling medieval ghost story, yet on the whole I felt a little underwhelmed after reading. Although the introduction and the addition of the original Latin text is a bonus to those of us who get our kicks from the historical backstory to the tale, others might see it as a means to pad out a rather thin book.

I can clearly picture this tale of the tailor and his encounter with the three ghosts being told aloud on a dark night by a warm fire. However, I’m left wishing this was part of a collection of medieval ghost stories brought to life by the author, rather than just this sole tale which is over far too quickly.

What a fab ghost story. With interesting history surrounding it, which has now led me to research more into the collection of ghost stories. This book may be short but packs a punch, perfect for spooky nights.

I love Dan Jones. His books have inspired a whole new generation with an interest in history which they otherwise would probably not have found. I will be oxymoronic now: His new book is a departure from the norm but still brings the past to life.
Like Dan himself I can remember Christmas Eve being a time to watch a classic M.R. James ghost story and feel the subtle horror slowly build in my imagination.
In the great tradition of Charles Dickens, M.R. James and Susan Hill this book is a little gem with a surprising ability to raise the dead in one's mind.

Have you ever started something - a book, audiobook, movie, TV show, etc - and knew immediately that this wasn't for you? You liked the idea of it and you see what they are trying to do but, nope. This isn't for you.

Well, that was the reaction I had with this. I loved the idea of this novella - a medieval ghost story, rewritten (up to a point) by a modern author. Perfect for Halloween or for those of you who like creepy ghost stories to read over Christmas.

And yet...

And yet, I felt like that gif of Anchorman, saying "I immediately regret this decision". I can't explain why I had such a strong reaction to reading this in almost one sitting. It's fine, and I know some of you guys will love this. Just not for me, I'm afraid.