Victorian Spiritualism and Psychical Culture

Spiritualism became a significant Victorian cultural movement, with séances, mediums, spirit photography and claims of communication with the dead attracting both believers and sceptics. It appealed to people dealing with bereavement, religious uncertainty and the desire for proof beyond conventional doctrine.

The movement also raised questions about fraud, gender and authority. Female mediums could gain unusual public influence, but they were also scrutinised, exposed, eroticised or punished when belief and deception became difficult to separate.

Affinity places spiritualism inside the enclosed world of Millbank Prison, where Selina Dawes’s reputation as a medium shapes Margaret Prior’s emotional and intellectual vulnerability. The context supports fiction about belief, grief, manipulation, women’s authority and the Victorian border between science and the supernatural.