Diana Peschier holds a PhD from University of London. She is the author of Nineteenth-century Anti-Catholic Discourse: The Case of Charlotte Bronte (2005)
The diverse texts Peschier examines in Lost Souls compose a rich, understudied resource that will continue to yield valuable insights into religion’s formative role in historical frameworks of cognitive difference in Western contexts and prehistories of what disability scholars and activists have called neurodiversity. * H-Disability * The book is testimony to the gendered nature of diagnosis and treatment in Victorian asylums and provides fascinating insights into the lives of the women discussed. It should inspire historians of family and community to investigate the lives of those women admitted to Victorian asylums, and provides context to their experiences. * Family and Community History * This is a fascinating exposition of female madness and how it manifested itself in religious expression in the Victorian era. Peschier’s extensive research provides us with a unique insight into the gendered treatment of these beleaguered women. * Julie Peakman, author of Hitler's Island War (2017), and Amatory Pleasures (2016) *