96: Lucy Barker (The Other Side Of Mrs Wood)
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Show Notes
Charlie and Lucy Barker (The Other Side Of Mrs Wood) discuss Victorian mediums both factual and fictionalised - their work, the spiritualism that led to their popularity, the social circles, the rivalry, the rumours of fraud, and the women's roles as early grief counsellors. We also talk about the early days of the Suffrage movement and various aspects of the book's ending.
Please note there is a very mild swear word in this episode.
A transcript is available on my site
General references: The Courtauld's exhibition of Georgiana Houghton's spirit paintings A preview of Tracy Ann Oberman's audio version of The Other Side Of Mrs Wood Lucy's blog post on the postal service in Victorian times One Night At McCool's Lucy's blog post on using Notting Hill
Books mentioned by name or extensively: Elizabeth Gaskell: Cranford George Gissings: The Odd Women Lucy Barker: The Other Side Of Mrs Wood
Release details: recorded 27th November 2023; published 22nd April 2024
Where to find Lucy online: Blog || Twitter || Instagram
Where to find Charlie online: Website || Twitter || Instagram || TikTok
Discussions
01:50 The real mediums who inspired the book: Agnes Guppy and Florence Cook 05:17 Lucy talks about how mediums in general were able to escape accusations of falsehood despite many being outed as frauds 08:53 The fickleness and loyalty of medium patrons 10:35 Why the Victorians were in to Spiritualism 14:00 The importance of the references to America throughout the book - America's own spiritualism 15:27 Mrs Wood, Miss Newman, and Miss Finch 19:07 The very early days of the women's suffrage movement 22:30 About Mrs Wood's circle of people 26:35 How Mrs Wood seeing herself as providing a service for grieving people, and the role of mediums in early grief counselling 29:34 The comedy in the book, and Lucy speaks briefly about her next book in the context of humour 30:58 Lucy's use of letters in the book, and Mr Clore's columns 33:23 The ending: why Lucy chose the ending she did for Mrs Wood and Mr Larson 35:32 Charlie thought it was going to be revealed that Miss Finch could really talk to spirits - Lucy discusses this point. Listen in! 37:24 The ending: Mrs Wood and Miss Finch and their terms 39:20 Lucy tells us about the locations in the book: Victorian-era Notting Hill, Portobello Road, Ladbroke Grove 42:32 Lucy gives us more information about her next book
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