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

Medium and ‘Psychic News’ Editor Maurice Barbanell wanted more affordable books on Spiritualism, Mediumship and psychic phenomena to be made available - and the idea was 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 first editions 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 to readers. As global subscriptions increased, Psychic Book Club’s readership spread to Australia, 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 of books were produced. Although content was unaffected, 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 in 1949 some restrictions remained, but by 1950 paper was in great supply once more. Psychic Book Club returned to the production of larger print runs and larger 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 twenty years, between 1937 and 1957, 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.