Biography

Brandon began her career as a trainee producer for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

, working in radio and television. She moved to work in freelance journalism and as an author. She is the author of many works of both fiction and non-fiction. Brandon's popular book ''The Spiritualists: The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries'' (1983) was republished by Prometheus Books. The book has been an influence on

skeptics Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the pe ...

as it debunked

spiritualism Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and Mind-body dualism, dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spiritualism (w ...

by documenting the absurdity and fraud in mediumship.

Martin Gardner Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of Lew ...

wrote "Thousands of books about spiritualism have been written by believers, skeptics, and fence-sitters, but none demonstrates as convincingly as ''The Spiritualists'' the unbelievable ease with which persons of the highest intelligence can be flimflammed by the crudest of psychic frauds." In the early 1980s Brandon was involved in a dispute with the paranormal author Brian Inglis over the mediumship of

Daniel Dunglas Home Daniel Dunglas Home (pronounced ''Hume''; 20 March 183321 June 1886) was a Scottish physical medium with the reported ability to levitate to a variety of heights, speak with the dead, and to produce rapping and knocks in houses at will. His bi ...

in the ''

New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publish ...

'' magazine. Brandon lives in London with her husband Philip Steadman, an art historian. Their daughter, Lily, was born 1982.

Publications

Fiction *''Caravaggio's Angel'' (2011) *''The Uncertainty Principle'' (1996) *''Tickling the Dragon'' (1995) *''The Gorgon's Smile'' (1992) *''Mind Out'' (1991) *''Left, Right and Centre'' (1991) *''Out of Body, Out of Mind'' (1987) Non Fiction *''Ugly Beauty: Helena Rubinstein, L’Oreal and the Blemished History of Looking Good'' (2011) *''The dollar princesses: Sagas of upward nobility, 1870–1914'' (2010) *''Other People’s Daughters: The Life And Times Of The Governess'' (2008) *''People’s Chef: Alexis Soyer, a Life in Seven Courses'' (2004) *''The Life and Many Deaths of Harry Houdini'' (2003) *''Automobile: How the Car Changed Life'' (2002) *''Surreal Lives: The Surrealists 1917–1945'' (2000) *''The New Women and the Old Men: Love, Sex and the Woman Question'' (2000) *''Being Divine: Biography of Sarah Bernhardt'' (1991) *''The Burning Question: The Anti-nuclear Movement Since 1945'' (1987) *''The Spiritualists: The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries'' (1983) *''A capitalist romance: Singer and the sewing machine'' (1977)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brandon, Ruth 1943 births Living people British historians British sceptics British women historians Critics of Spiritualism Critics of parapsychology Writers from London