The Psychic Book Club was first incorporated on January 15th 1938 and began selling books in March of that year.

Spiritualist medium and ‘Psychic News’ editor, Maurice Barbanell, wanted to provide more affordable books on Spiritualism, mediumship and psychic phenomena - and his idea became a success.

Readers were invited to subscribe to Psychic Book Club for up to twelve months, in return they would receive a new book in the post each month - either a reprinted classic or a brand new title.

The books were written by some of the best exponents of mediumship, including Fleet Street journalist Frederick Hannen Swaffer, Spiritualism’s own Arthur Conan Doyle, medium Estelle Roberts and prolific author and medium Geraldine Cummins.

As the popularity of these monthly editions continued to grow, their diversity and authorship expanded to include works by Harry Edwards, William T. Stead, Eileen J Garrett, Anthony Borgia, Winifred Graham and White Eagle’s medium, Grace Cooke.

Worldwide distribution meant that geography was no limitation for readers. As global subscriptions increased, Psychic Book Club’s readership spread to Australia, North Africa, Canada, New Zealand and the USA .

After war broke out across Europe, restrictions and rationing influenced all aspects of life - and the publishing industry was equally affected. The fires of the London Blitz hit the publishing industry hard, yet Psychic Book Club was not defeated and it continued to supply its readers with books.

With paper imports at an all-time low, the government introduced a paper saving strategy. The new ‘Wartime Economy Standard’ in book production meant that fewer copies could be produced - pages were thinner, hardbacks were reduced to paperbacks and text on the page often ran from edge to edge.

Although paper rationing finally came to an end after the war, it was a few years until book manufacture could return to the levels of pre-war production.

By 1950 paper was in greater supply once more and Psychic Book Club could return to the production of larger print runs with better quality hardback books.

The next seven years included authors such as Arthur Ford, Horace Leaf, Alfred Russel Wallace, Sir William Barrett and even Maurice Barbanell himself rejoined the authorship. Indeed, 1950 to 1957 were prolific years for Psychic Book Club and many of those editions can still be found for sale today.

For almost twenty years, Psychic Book Club successfully produced more than a hundred and fifty different titles, purchased by readers all over the world.

The final publication to carry the Psychic Book Club name came by accident in 1960. William Naylor’s ‘Silver Birch Anthology’ was published by Spiritualist Press - another of Barbanell’s publishing ventures - but it was a direct copy of the earlier 1955 edition and the name Psychic Book Club can still be seen on the title page.