For fans of the BBC's Inside Number 9 and The League of Gentlemen
Aickman's 'strange stories' (his preferred term) are constructed immaculately, the neuroses of his characters painted in subtle shades. He builds dread by the steady accrual of realistic detail, until the reader realises that the protagonist is heading towards their doom as if in a dream.Dark Entries was first published in 1964 and contains six curious and macabre stories of love, death and the supernatural, including the classic story 'Ringing the Changes'.
Robert Aickman (1914-1981) was the grandson of Richard Marsh, a leading Victorian novelist of the occult. Though his chief occupation in life was first as a conservationist of England's canals he eventually turned his talents to writing what he called 'strange stories.' Dark Entries (1964) was his first full collection, the debut in a body of work that would inspire Peter Straub to hail Aickman as 'this century's most profound writer of what we call horror stories.'
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It would be false modesty to deny that Sally Tessler and I were the bright girls of the school. THE SCHOOL FRIEND
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(@FaberBooks, 3 June 2014, first published 1964, ebook, 154 pages, bought from @AmazonKindle)
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I'd heard of the author but had never got round to reading his work. The blurb made this collection of stories sound like something I'd really enjoy and some glowing reviews made me decide to check it out. I've asked for a refund. This is not what I expected at all. I didn't enjoy any of the stories. They are strange and bizarre but not in a good way more of a tedious, dull as dishwater kind of way. I found them boring and overwritten. These are not for me.