Arthur Machen BBC Interview (22/3/1937)

Arthur Machen (1863-1947)
Born Arthur Llewellyn Jones, the novelist and journalist Arthur Machen was an influential writer of occult and horror fiction. His works include the novel The Hill of Dreams (1907) and short stories such as 'The Great God Pan' and 'The Bowmen', in which the ghosts of archers from the Battle of Agincourt come to aid British troops in the first world war. It is a measure of the power of this story that it entered the popular imagination as a factual account. This fragment from a broadcast originally lasting 20 minutes, in which Machen discusses Thackeray and Dickens, is the only recording of his voice to survive.