Ruth Brandon

[1] Brandon began her career as a trainee producer for the BBC, working in radio and television.

The book has been an influence on skeptics as it debunked spiritualism by documenting the absurdity and fraud in mediumship.

[4] 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.

"[5] 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.

[6][7][8] Brandon lives in London with her husband Philip Steadman, an art historian.