Henrietta Emily Gopping was something of a legendary figure in 1930s artistic circles. By all accounts she was frequently the life and soul of the party (which many have seen as probably a euphemism for being something of a lush), particularly as a mimic of other guests. This mimicry seemed to hide a far more satirical intent and her private writings seem to show a writer who could prick the pretensions of the most ghastly of the artistic circles with but a few words. She seemed to have a skill at pastiche and parody that was truly rare - and came in handy for the third book put out by Penda. As a good friend of Miriam Dunstable particularly, she was asked to put out "some sort of psychic spiritualist book" and this is what she came up with: either a genuine book about the spirit world and how close it is to our own... or a very, very po-faced hatchet job on the overly credulous. The latter seems more likely, as the chapter about ley lines and trams particularly suggests. It didn't sell very well, but has become something of a cult favourite in the last few years.
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