Florence Cook

Mediumship, Evidence, and the Cabinet

Florence Cook was a teenager when her name became evidence.

In Victorian England, séances promised proof of life after death. Cabinets were built, conditions negotiated, and belief tested under dim light. At the centre of one of the era’s most disputed cases stood Florence Cook, a young medium whose performances drew the attention of scientist William Crookes—and ignited a controversy that would never fully close.

This book examines the Florence Cook case as historical true crime: not as ghost story, and not as spectacle, but as an investigation into procedure, reputation, power, and proof. Drawing on primary sources, contemporary accounts, and later critiques, it traces how a private parlour became a public battleground—and how a girl became a case.

Florence Cook is a fact-based study of Victorian spiritualism, scientific authority, and the human cost of unresolved belief.