The Attempted Rescue

Autobiography of Robert Aickman, acknowledged master of the modern psychological ghost story. This autobiography chronicles Aickman's childhood and youth, over which looms the figure of his eccentric father, a man almost entirely resistant to "normal" family life. So much of Aickman's childhood appears bizarre and unyielding of explanantion that it is little wonder that his short stories are so lacking in closure. There is much achingly heart-felt nostalgia for pre World War II London, and for the large country house of his great uncle and aunt. Aickman also displays a good acquaintance with psychoanalysis, and one may infer that the disturbing images with which he invests his fiction are by design.