Ruth Brandon (born 1943) is a British journalist, historian and author.

Early life

Brandon was born in

Luton Luton () is a town and borough in Bedfordshire, England. The borough had a population of 225,262 at the 2021 census. Luton is on the River Lea, about north-west of London. The town's foundation dates to the sixth century as a Saxon settleme ...

, where her family had a factory, grew up in

Edgware Edgware () is a suburban town in northwest London. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex east of the ancient Watling Street in what is now the London Borough of Barnet but it is now informally considered to cover a wider area, inc ...

. Her grandparents were Jewish refugees from Russia. Brandon attended North London Collegiate School. She studied English and French at Girton College, Cambridge and then a women's college.

Career

Brandon began her career as a trainee producer for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, 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 Prometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by the philosopher Paul Kurtz (who was also the founder of the Council for Secular Humanism, Center for Inquiry, and co-founder of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry). The publ ...

. The book has been an influence on skeptics as it debunked

spiritualism Spiritualism may refer to: * Spiritual church movement, a group of Spiritualist churches and denominations historically based in the African-American community * Spiritualism (beliefs), a metaphysical belief that the world is made up of at leas ...

by documenting the absurdity and fraud in

mediumship Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or ghost, spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or ...

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

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 in the ''

New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a popular science 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 organ ...

'' 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 Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge British sceptics British social historians English people of Russian-Jewish descent English women historians English women novelists English women journalists Critics of Spiritualism Critics of parapsychology Historians from London Journalists from London Novelists from London People educated at North London Collegiate School People from Edgware People from Luton Writers from Bedfordshire Writers from the London Borough of Barnet