According recounts his autobiography, The Attempted Rescue, Robert Fordyce Aickman (1914-1981) had a difficult childhood, undermined by the extravagance of his father, the architect William Arthur Aickman, and the constant bickering of this with his young wife 32 years young, Mabel Violet, daughter of the prolific Victorian author Richard Marsh, author of a novel that rivaled in popularity with Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Aickman was a strong advocate of the environment; founded a fluvial association and wrote two treatises on the subject. He cultivated the drama, novel and criticism of opera, but will always be remembered for his 48 stories, which met in various collections: We Are for the Dark. Six Ghost Stories (1951), Dark Entries (1964), Powers of Darkness (1966), Sub Rosa: Strange Tales (1968), Cold Hand in Mine: Strange Stories (1975), Tales of Love and Death (1977) and Intrusions . Strange Tales (1980