A Stellar Key to the Summerland, 2007

graphic novel, published by Book Works

On the night of 31 March 1848, the peace was shattered by a bizarre incident occurring at the home of the Fox Family, in the rural community of Hydesville in New York State. Kate and Maggie, two seemingly innocent young sisters poised on the threshold of adulthood, had pushed aside the veil between the two worlds and unleashed the spirits of the dead. History is still divided as to whether they were frauds or visionaries, but their ‘new science of spirit communication’ sparked a remarkable social movement dedicated to female suffrage, free love, universal education and the abolition of slavery that reached all the way to the British Isles.

This thrilling tale introduces a host of characters, from mediums to mesmerists, scientists and social reformers – including Emanuel Swedenborg, Andrew Jackson Davis, Victoria Woodhull, Amy Post, John Murray Spear, Florence Cook and Robert Owen – who, as part of the Modern Spiritualist Movement, attempted to literally turn the world upside down.