🎙️ 1001 Ghost, Chiller & Lovecraft Stories

SHOW NOTES

“SMEE” by A.M. Burrage

A Christmas Eve game of hide‑and‑seek becomes a brush with the dead.

A.M. Burrage’s “Smee” is one of the finest English ghost stories of the early 20th century — subtle, atmospheric, and built around the kind of slow‑creeping dread that M.R. James himself praised Burrage for achieving . First published in December 1929 in Nash’s Pall Mall Magazine, the story has become a classic of holiday hauntings: a tale where a simple parlor game turns into a chilling encounter with something that should not be there.

🕯️ Story Summary

It is Christmas Eve, and a group of fourteen friends gather in an old country house — the perfect setting for childish games after a good dinner and holiday cheer. Someone suggests hide‑and‑seek, and the group erupts in enthusiastic approval… except for one man: Jackson.

Jackson refuses to play. When pressed, he explains that he once stayed in a house where a girl died during hide‑and‑seek — she opened the wrong door in the dark, fell down a servants’ staircase, and broke her neck . But then he adds something even more unsettling:

“I was there when something else happened. Something worse.”

Jackson proposes a different game: SMEE — a variation of hide‑and‑seek played in total darkness. One player secretly becomes “Smee,” hides, and remains silent when found. The others must locate Smee by touch and challenge them with the word “Smee.” The real Smee never answers. One by one, players gather silently around the hidden figure until everyone is found.

It is meant to be noisy, chaotic, and fun. But in a large, old house, it can take a long time… and strange things can happen in the dark.

During the game, the narrator encounters a silent figure standing in a small, cold room — a figure he assumes is one of the players. But when the lights come on, he learns that no one else was ever in that room. The person he stood beside — the one who refused to answer — was not part of the game at all.

And when Jackson later reveals the name of the girl who died in the house, the narrator realizes with horror that the silent figure he found matches her description exactly.

The game of SMEE has drawn a ghost into the circle.

👻 Why “SMEE” Works So Well

• Classic English ghost‑story atmosphere — Christmas Eve, an old house, candlelight, and youthful merriment.

• A slow build of dread — Burrage uses silence, darkness, and suggestion rather than shock.

• A perfect twist — the narrator’s “player” was never alive.

• A haunting backstory — the girl who died on the servants’ staircase becomes the ghost who joins the game.

• A timeless structure — a party game becomes a supernatural encounter.

This is Burrage at his best: understated, eerie, and unforgettable.

🧩 Themes & Tone

• Games that open doors to the unseen

• The thin veil between memory and haunting

• The danger of old houses and forgotten tragedies

• The uncanny silence of the dead

The story is perfect for listeners who love M.R. James, E.F. Benson, and the classic British tradition of Christmas ghost stories.

📚 Publication Notes

• First published December 1929 in Nash’s Pall Mall Magazine

• Written by A.M. Burrage, later praised by M.R. James as one of the writers who “best realized” the possibilities of the ghost story

• Frequently anthologized in Christmas ghost‑story collections

• Public domain

🔔 Programming Note

New stories every Sunday at noon ET Tune in to 1001 Ghost, Chiller & Lovecraft Stories for weekly releases of classic horror, supernatural tales, and eerie fiction from the masters of the genre.

🎧 Suggested Outro

“SMEE” reminds us that some games should never be played in the dark — especially in old houses where tragedy has left its mark. Burrage’s tale lingers long after the lights come back on, whispering that sometimes, when we call out ‘Smee,’ something answers by staying silent.”