'When you read Hope Street, you are uplifted, exhilarated, excited at the profound truths that shine through. This radiant book will bring great comfort, healing and hope to all who are blessed by reading it.' Patricia ScanlanThis is the true story of a family with a spiritual gift, which has always lived in the heart of one of the traditional working class communities of the North. Their triumphs and tragedies unfolded in the cobbled streets, working men's cottages, terraced houses and council houses of Horwich, near Manchester.Hope Street North had more than their fair share of loss and heartbreak. A young girl was run over and killed by a horse and cart and another died of diphtheria. There were affairs, a secret pregnancy, an elopement and a double suicide. Every family has its secrets and tragedies, but this family had this unique psychic gift passed down from generation to generation: the women of the family were able to communicate with the Spirit worlds.Hope Street begins with Pamela's own Spiritualist childhood. One of her earliest memories, dating from when she was about five is of watching as Spiritualist friends arrived for one of her mother's sittings. She was a medium and the children would wait expectantly for the deep silence that preceded their mother's trances, and for the different voices of the spirits and other paranormal phenomena that spoke through her. Her father told her how on one occasion a carnation, real to the touch and bejewelled with dew, materialized in mid air. Pamela would see her mother gradually, and starting from her head down, disappeared before her very eyes.Hope Street continues with the saga of Pamela's family. She traces the way Spirit worked through generation after generation, culminating in her own remarkable mother. It was after her mother's death, when Pamela was in the depths of despair, that she found her own spiritual gift. Guided by the spirit of her mother, she finally understood the prophecy and message of hope for humanity that Spirit had been working to bring to the world. Introduction by Patricia Scanlan.

"Fascinating. . . . A fun and thorough look at how humans have tried to communicate with the dead over time."-Library Journal "An impressive piece of research. . . . A must-read for anyone fascinated with Spiritualism."-Alma Katsu, author of The Deep and The Hunger Calling the Spirits investigates the eerie history of our conversations with the dead, from necromancy in Homer's Odyssey to the emergence of Spiritualism, when Victorians were entranced by mediums and the seance was born. Among our cast are the Fox sisters, teenagers surrounded by "spirit rappings;" Daniel Dunglas Home, the "greatest medium of all time;" Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whose unlikely friendship was forged, then riven, by the afterlife; and Helen Duncan, the medium whose trial in 1944 for witchcraft proved more popular to the public than news about the war. The book also considers Ouija boards, modern psychics and paranormal investigations, and is illustrated with engravings, fine art (from beyond), and photographs. A hugely entertaining contribution from the supernaturally adept Lisa Morton, Calling the Spirits begs the question: is anybody there . . . ?