Ruth Brandon: Difference between revisions

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}

{{short description|British journalist, historian and author|bot=PearBOT 5}}

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

Brandon began her career as a trainee producer for the [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]], working in radio and television. She moved to work in [[Freelancer|freelance journalism]] and as an author.<ref>[http://www.ruthbrandon.co.uk/?page_id=2 Biography for Ruth Brandon]</ref> She is the author of many works of both fiction and non-fiction.<ref>[http://www.cerisepress.com/01/01/surreal-lives-ruth-brandon/view-all An Interview with Ruth Brandon by Louis E. Bourgeois ]</ref>

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 [[Skepticism|skeptics]] as it debunked [[Spiritualism (movement)|spiritualism]] by documenting the absurdity and fraud in [[mediumship]].<ref>Marlene Tromp. ''Altered States: Sex, Nation, Drugs, And Self-transformation in Victorian Spiritualism'' . State University of New York Press. p. 7. {{ISBN|978-0791467398}}</ref> [[Martin Gardner]] 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."<ref>[[Martin Gardner]]. (1988). ''The New Age: Notes of a Fringe Watcher''. Prometheus Books. p. 175. {{ISBN|978-0879754327}}</ref>

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]]'' magazine.<ref>Ruth Brandon. [https://books.google.com/books?id=BX7c6gVuyVQC&dq=%22Scientists+and+the+supernormal%22&pg=PA783 ''Scientists and the Supernormal'']. New Scientist 16 June 1983</ref><ref>[[Brian Inglis]]. ''Supernormal''. New Scientist. 30 June 1983</ref><ref>Ruth Brandon. Prestidigitations. New Scientist. 14 July 1983</ref>

Brandon lives in London with her husband Philip Steadman, an art historian.<ref>[http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/35265/Ruth_Brandon/index.aspx Ruth Brandon at Harper Collins Publishers]</ref> Their daughter, Lily, was born 1982.<ref>[http://www.groveatlantic.com/?author=Ruth+Brandon Ruth Brandon at Grove Atlantic]</ref>

*''Caravaggio's Angel'' (2011)

*''The Gorgon's Smile'' (1992)

*''The dollar princesses: Sagas of upward nobility, 1870–1914'' (2010)

*''Other People’s Daughters: The Life And Times Of The Governess'' (2008)<ref> Ruth Brandon (2008): Other people's daughters. The Life and Times of the Governess. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. </ref>

*''Surreal Lives: The Surrealists 1917–1945'' (2000)

*''The Spiritualists: The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries'' (1983)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mAtQPgAACAAJ|title=The Spiritualists: The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries|last=Brandon|first=Ruth|date=1984|publisher=Prometheus Books|isbn=9780879752699|language=en}}</ref>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brandon, Ruth}}

[[Category:British historians]]

[[Category:Critics of Spiritualism]]

[[Category:Critics of parapsychology]]

[[Category:Writers from London]]