“The publication of new stories in The Strangers & Other Writings is likely to be the highlight of the year for Aickman fans.”
The Strangers & Other Writings includes previously unpublished and uncollected short fiction, non-fiction and poetry by Robert Aickman. Dating from the 1930s to 1980, the contents show his development as a writer. Six unpublished short stories, augmented by one written for broadcast, follow his fiction from the whimsical through the experimental to the ghostly, with ‘The Strangers’ a fully-formed, Aickmanesque strange tale. The non-fiction samples Aickman’s wide-ranging interests and erudition: from the supernatural to Oscar Wilde; from 1940s films to Delius; from politics to the theatre; from Animal Farm to the canals.
Why We’re Excited About This Book:
Robert Aickman was master of what he called ‘strange stories’: haunting, cryptic, ambiguous tales that occupy a unique place in British literary horror. Tartarus Press has been reissuing Aickman’s work in handsome hardback volumes for a number of years, but The Strangers & Other Writings is something even more exciting–the first ‘new’ Aickman stories to be published since the posthumous release Night Voices in 1985.
The Strangers contains six unpublished Aickman stories, which detail his development as a writer over five decades. The book also includes a story written for broadcast, poetry and some of Aickman’s non-fiction writing. All in all, the publication of The Strangers & Other Writings is likely to be the highlight of the year for Aickman’s many obsessive fans.
As if that wasn’t enough, accompanying The Strangers is a DVD documentary Robert Aickman, Author Of Strange Tales. This documentary isn’t available for sale anywhere else and it includes interviews with Jeremy Dyson and Reggie Oliver as well as Aickman’s friends and acquaintances.
The Strangers & Other Writings is available to preorder now from Tartarus Press.
“The many talented authors included in this volume all have past form writing subtle, ambiguous horror fiction.”
Edited by Simon Strantzas, Aickman’s Heirs is an anthology of strange, weird tales by modern visionaries of weird fiction, in the milieu of Robert Aickman, the master of strange and ambiguous stories. Editor and author Strantzas, an important figure in Weird fiction, has been hailed as the heir to Aickman’s oeuvre, and is ideally suited to edit this exciting volume. Featuring all-original stories from Brian Evenson, Lisa Tuttle, John Langan, Helen Marshall, Michael Cisco, and others.
Why We’re Excited About This Book:
And the perfect companion to The Strangers is this new anthology from Undertow Publications, Aickman’s Heirs. It’s an interesting question whether any other author can write a truly ‘Aickmanesque’ story given how unique a gift Aickman had, but the many talented authors included in this volume all have past form writing subtle and ambiguous horror fiction. And as editor Simon Strantzas says in his introduction, he wasn’t wanting authors to write straight Aickman pastiche, but to write something as unique to them as Aickman’s stories were to him.
Featuring stories from such writers as Helen Marshall, Nina Allen, Lisa Tuttle, John Langan and Lynda E Rucker, Aickman’s Heirs looks set to be one of the very best anthologies of 2015.
Aickman’s Heirs is out now from Undertow Publications.
JAMES EVERINGTON