I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain'd,

I stand and look at them long and long.

Writer's writer is one of those phrases which, whilst intended as a compliment, has a faintly off-putting ring, implying boring elegiac tales in which nothing happens. Not so with Aickman.

Blood Relatives by Stevan Alcock

It was after I’d finished building your cot that I sat down and cried for the first time. No-one had told me I’d cry. It happens to real men during the birth, crying. But during flatpack assembly?