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Last week, I reviewed the TV show, Funny Woman, set in 1960s London. Tina started a project to read all of Rosamunde Pilcher’s books. She started with Coming Home. Susan enjoyed Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spenser-Ash, about a child who was sent to the United States for safety during World War II and the impacts on both families.

Book: The Other Side of Mrs. Wood by Lucy Barker
Genre: Novel
Publisher: Harper
Publication date: 2023

Source: E-book borrowed from the library

Summary: The Other Side of Mrs. Wood, by British debut author Lucy Barker, tells the story of the most gifted medium in London’s séance scene in 1873. The world of spiritualism is a tricky business, though.

Mediums get exposed as frauds. Mediums worry that their production values aren’t keeping up with others, like the fantastic fully realized spirits that are rumored to have appeared at events in America. Younger mediums appear on the scene with flexible bodies, fresh ideas, and pretty faces.

What does Mrs. Wood need to do to stay relevant, continuing to meet the needs of her patrons and to support her household?

Thoughts: Is 19th-century London spiritualism having a moment in modern historical fiction? This is the second book I’ve read with this setting in recent months. The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner was a very different story, but also featured the mysterious world of the occult in 1873 London.

I see the allure for modern novelists. If you want to write about independent women in the 19th-century, there are a limited number of professions to choose from. Spiritualism relied more on talent than class or gender, so there was a kind of meritocracy that cracked open opportunities for people who didn’t ordinarily have many paths open to them.

The Author’s Note at the end of The Other Side of Mrs. Wood reveals that the characters in this novel were inspired by real women of the time. I loved learning about a time and place in history where women could run small service businesses that met a need of the population.

Appeal: The Other Side of Mrs. Wood will have special appeal to readers who are fascinated by ghosts and how people have related to them in history. That’s not me, particularly. As you can see from my thoughts, there’s also an attraction to those of us who like to hear about how women in history navigated paths for themselves in a patriarchal society. Mrs. Wood’s assistant, Miss Newman, gives us a lovely side story about the women’s suffrage movement.

Have you read this book? What did you think?