Review: Robert Aickman: An Attempted Biography by R. B. Russell

This review was published in Phantasmagoria magazine #21 August 2022 

ROBERT AICKMAN: AN ATTEMPTED BIOGRAPHY

By R. B. Russell

Tartarus Press 2022 Hardcover

Ray Russell’s highly readable biography of Robert Aickman gives an unparalleled glimpse into a life that contained more psychological complications than is usual even amongst authors of “strange stories”. It is a life full of contradictions, not least being the unreliability of his own version of events, to the extent of omitting any mention of his wife of fourteen years in his two autobiographies. And his dislike of technology, “experts” and our modern age was so strong that he never owned a radio, television or a car. Instead, living in London he frequently attended theatres, opera and the ballet, and for quite some time wrote opera reviews.

Robert Aickman: An Attempted Biography is a warts and all biography, which is not, I must confess, what I expected from Tartarus Press, which has published Aickman’s entire opus over recent years. All credit to them and to Ray Russell for being unflinchingly objective in the biography of a writer whose writings he and Tartarus Press obviously value immensely.

It is a fact that throughout his life Aickman’s uncompromising views on so many things caused him to have some bitter enemies, such as L.T. C Rolt, with whom he co-founded the Inland Waterways Association in 1946, and who Aickman successfully worked with for many years until an intractable divergence of views on what the objectives of the IWA should be caused a lasting rift. Indeed, it was so bad that at a dinner party in 1974, shortly before his death, Rolt claimed Aickman was “the most evil man I have ever known.” Which is a sad reflection on how their long-time collaboration had descended into such acrimony.

Alas for Aickman, Rolt was not the only enemy he made, and it’s suggested this was why, despite all the work he put into the IWA, Aickman never received any official recognition in the form of some kind of honour, whether an OBE or a knighthood.

Of course, for most of us, Aickman is mainly known for his stories. Significantly, although he wrote extensively for the IWA, it was only when he developed a relationship with the writer Elizabeth Jane Howard the first of the stories he became famous for saw publication, when they co-authored the collection We Are for the Dark. Even then books of short stories by little or unknown writers were rare and it saw publication by Jonathan Cape only because of Elizabeth Jane Howard’s earlier success with her novel The Beautiful Visit, which Cape had published. The collection was made up of six stories, three by both contributors, though who wrote which was not revealed at the time.

Since then, of course, numerous collections of stories by Aickman have been published over the years, and for quite some time he was the highly respected editor of the Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories. He also went on to receive recognition within the genre and was awarded the prize for Best Short Story for Pages from a Young Girl’s Journal in 1975 at the First World Fantasy Awards in Providence, Rhode Island, though unfortunately he was unable to attend. For some reason his visa was declined by the United States. The following year he was Guest of Honour at the British Fantasy Society’s annual convention, FantasyCon.

Unfortunately, Aickman’s distrust of experts and modern technology led him to refuse chemotherapy when he was diagnosed with cancer in 1980, preferring instead to take homeopathic remedies. He died the following year aged 66.

Phantasmagoria magazine

My review of Robert Aickman: An Attempted Biography by R. B. Russell to be on Big Hits Radio UK tomorrow

My review of Robert Aickman: An Attempted Biography by R. B. Russell will be read out by Trevor Kennedy on his weekly Sunday show on Big Hits Radio UK tomorrow between 12 noon and 2 p.m.

The review will also be published in the next issue of Phantasmagoria magazine. 

 

When Robert Aickman was Guest of Honour at Fantasycon

This article was originally written for a centenary collection of articles, interviews and stories dedicated to Robert Aickman. As this book was never published - and is now unlikely ever to appear - I thought I would share my brief reminisce of when Robert Aickman was Guest of Honour at the second ever Fantasycon back in 1976.

Robert Aickman Comes To Fantasycon

David A. Riley

The British Fantasy Society was formed in 1971. In the early days the BFS was far too small to hold its own conventions and, though we soon created the first of our annual awards (The August Derleth Award for Best Novel) we used the Easter Science Fiction Conventions to announce it.

It was not till 1975 that the BFS had grown confident enough to hold its first convention. This was a one day event in February at the old Imperial Hotel in Birmingham, a much loved if scruffy hotel that was long ago demolished. Although only forty-three members had booked in advance, we were delighted when over sixty turned up on the day – making it a rip roaring success!

On the back of this it was almost immediately decided to hold a second convention the following year, again at the Imperial and this time over two days. We had also gained enough confidence to invite a high profile writer as our guest of honour. And you didn’t in those days aim much higher than Robert Aickman, who was approaching the zenith of his literary career. The year before, he was awarded a World Fantasy Award for his story Pages from a Young Girl’s Journal.

As events organiser for this convention, it was my task to invite him. Perhaps not surprisingly, for an organisation that hardly anyone had heard of at the time, which had only just managed to upgrade its publications from mimeographed sheets to lithograph and still had only a minuscule membership, our proposed guest of honour was initially uncertain whether to accept or not. He had genuine doubts as to whether we would appreciate the kinds of stories he wrote, which were certainly not like those normally found in the horror, fantasy, and SF sections of bookshops then. Fortunately he knew Ramsey Campbell, who was soon to become the society’s president, and I was able to persuade him that, contrary to his foreboding, his stories were exactly the kind of fiction our members were interested in. Finally, to my relief, he wrote back, “Very well: I shall accept, and have duly noted the dates, 28^th and 29^th February 1976.”

With great work from all the members of the then committee the convention was an even greater success than the year before with over a hundred guests. With some favourable publicity in several publications, including the monthly newsstand magazine World of Horror, which ran for 12 issues through 1974 before folding at the end of the year, membership of the BFS had grown far beyond its initial handful.

With so much to do as organiser at Fantasycon I didn't get much chance to see Robert Aickman but I did make sure I was there throughout his guest of honour speech. He spoke at length with his customary eloquence on a number of subjects, including his involvement in saving Britain's canals and about literary functions at Foyle's. He also, of course, spoke about ghost stories. In his report on the convention in the next issue of the British Fantasy Society Bulletin, Adrian Cole wrote: "Mr Aickman gave us a thought-provoking talk on ghost and supernatural writing, and of how he feels we should react to its varying styles - he made the interesting point that ghost writing should be aimed at the nine tenths of our mind that is unconscious rather than at the one tenth we use, explaining that subtlety and the hinted suggestion can be far more potent a weapon than the graphic shock of overwritten violence. Mr Aickman spoke of his involvement in writing and of how it had led him to meet a good many reputable fellow writers; he also touched on difficulties that can be found in having one’s work adapted for television, and of how he had rejected a generous offer to write something to order for a wealthy film company – which partially explains why he is an artist as much as an entertainer, in a field where polish and style are all too difficult to find.”

Later that evening a number of us accompanied him to an Indian restaurant. Having something of a reputation as a wine connoisseur, when it came to choosing which bottles to order the question was deferred to him.  I was amused and impressed when Aickman’s laconic answer was “the cheapest”.

Robert Aickman was a perfect guest for our fledgling convention, courteous and willing to overlook any short fallings that might have occurred in our organisation of it. He set a standard for future conventions.