Harriet Martineau and the Victorian beliefs in practices such as mesmerism and phrenology, are discussed by Dr Ella Dzelzainis, Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature at Newcastle University and co-author of Harriet Martineau: Authorship, Society and Empire (2010), Pat Beesley, PhD candidate in English Literature at Newcastle University and recent convener of The Pseudo/Sciences of the Long Nineteenth Century Research Group and Patrick Low, PhD student of History at Sunderland University researching Capital Punishment in the North East of England (1752-1878).