ROBERT AICKMAN
www.robertaickman.com
Master of the modern strange tale, novelist, critic, editor, literary agent and saviour of the British waterways, Robert Aickman (1914-1981) is best known as one of the most accomplished writers of ghost stories of the twentieth century.
Robert Aickman, photo from the National Archives, London
Robert Aickman in print from Tartarus Press
Robert Aickman, photo courtesy of Jean Richardson
Compulsory Games, edited by Victoria Nelson, NYRB, 2018
The Wine-Dark Sea by Robert Aickman, Faber and Faber
Robert Aickman, photo from the National Archives, London
The Late Breakfasters by Robert Aickman, Valancourt Books
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NEWS
14th April 2018
Compulsory Games
New York Review of Books is to publish a new Robert Aickman collection, Compulsory Games. It will be released in the US in May, and in the UK in June. The new volume contains:
Compulsory Games
Le Miroir
Raising the Wind
Residents Only
Hand in Glove
Wood
Laura
Just a Song at Twilight
Letters to the Postman
Marriage
No Time Is Passing
The Strangers
The Fully-Conducted Tour
A Disciple of Plato
The Coffin House
Compulsory Games is thus a good companion volume to the Faber paperbacks, including various stories that have not been collected by that publisher. It also includes the best of the tales which are recently published by Tartarus Press in The Strangers.
Each story in this collection is a small masterpiece of unease and psychological perplexity….Aickman’s stories present dreamlike, inexplicable realities in prose both strangely sensual and entirely disarming, making this collection a treasure for fans of Poe, Kafka, and Lovecraft.
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
Aickman creates a disquieting universe in which everything is just off, a wall covered in pictures hung at imperceptibly crooked angles. His command of tone and tension far outstrips that of H.P. Lovecraft and presents a serious challenge to Henry James...As unnerving as it is sinuous; an absolute delight.
—Kirkus, starred review
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15th September 2017
British Library Celebration
The British Library will be celebrating the purchase of the Robert archive with an "uncanny evening of readings and discussion". The details have changed since first reported, and the line-up now includes Ramsey Campbell, Leslie Gardner, Victoria Nelson and Jeremy Dyson.
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8th September 2017
Wormwoodiana
Ray Russell and Rosalie Parker from Tartarus Press have recently written a guest blog for Wormwoodiana, discussing the Robert Aickman archive, and its sale to the British Library. It also gives detail of a celebration event at the British Library.
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17th December 2016
The Hospice
Aickman's short story, 'The Hospice', read by Gideon Coe, can be heard at the BBC Radio 4 Extra website.
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24th November 2016
A Weekend of Weird
On Sunday 26 November, 10.30-12.30 pm, Aickmania is the panel discussion at Loughborough University's A Weekend of Weird. With Nick Freeman and R.B. Russell, this session features discussions of Aickman's work and influence, and includes screenings of the Tartarus Press documentary, Robert Aickman: Author of Strange Tales and HTV's television adaptation of his story, 'The Inner Room', unseen since 1987.
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23rd November 2016
New Website
We have launched a new website at www.robertaickman.com
Website Copyright Tartarus Press, 2016.
contact: tartarus@pavilion.co.uk
Robert Aickman's writings are in copyright, and his Estate is represented by Artellus Ltd