Among the Spirits

On April 14, 1920, halfway through his UK tour, when he was performing at the Brighton Hippodrome, Harry traveled to Crowborough, East Sussex, a journey of about twenty-five miles, to have lunch at Windlesham Manor, the Edwardian country house where Sir Arthur and Lady Conan Doyle (his second wife, Jean Leckie) lived with their three young children. This first meeting was sequel to a lively correspondence (ten letters in a fortnight) that began after Harry, promoting his tour and himself, sent Conan Doyle a copy of The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin. Spiritualism was the principal topic of the letters—specifically the