Although not overtly sexual, plots of this nature have been perceived as unintentional metaphors of the Freudian variety. James's biographer Michael Cox wrote in "M. R. James: An Informal Portrait" (1983), "One need not be a professional psychoanalyst to see the ghost stories as some release from feelings held in check." Reviewing this biography ("Daily Telegraph", 1983), the novelist and diarist Anthony Powell, who attended Eton under James's tutelage, commented that "I myself have heard it suggested that James's (of course platonic) love affairs were in fact fascinating to watch." Powell was referring to James's relationships with his pupils, not his peers. Other critics have seen complex psychological undercurrents in James's work. His authorial revulsion from tactile contact with other people has been noted by Julia Briggs in "Night Visitors: The Rise and Fall of the English Ghost Story" (1977). As Nigel Kneale said in the introduction to the Folio Society edition of "Ghost Stories of M. R. James", "In an age where every man is his own psychologist, M. R. James looks like rich and promising material. ... There must have been times when it was hard to be Monty James." Or, to put it another way, "Although James conjures up strange beasts and supernatural manifestations, the shock effect of his stories is usually strongest when he is dealing in physical mutilation and abnormality, generally sketched in with the lightest of pens." In addition to writing his own stories, James championed the works of Sheridan Le Fanu, whom he viewed as "absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories", editing and supplying introductions to "Madame Crowl's Ghost" (1923) and "Uncle Silas" (1926). James's statements about his actual beliefs about ghosts were ambiguous. He wrote, "I answer that I am prepared to consider evidence and accept it if it satisfies me." James held strongly traditional views about literature. In addition to ghost stories, he also enjoyed reading the work of William Shakespeare and the detective stories of Agatha Christie. By contrast, James disliked most contemporary literature, strongly criticizing the work of Aldous Huxley, Lytton Strachey and James Joyce (whom James called "a charlatan" and "that prostitutor of life and language"). James also supported the banning of Radclyffe Hall's 1928 novel about lesbianism, "The Well of Loneliness", stating, "I believe Miss Hall's book is about birth control or some kindred subject, isn't it.