Clive-Ross, Francis Fabian (1921-)

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Clive-Ross, Francis Fabian (1921-)

Active figure in British occult publishing. A justice of the peace, Clive-Ross was for many years proprietor of the Aquarian Book Service, established at Pates Manor, an ancient house in Middlesex. He relinquished his interest in Aquarian Press around 1966.

Soon after the London Spiritualist Alliance was reorganized as the College of Psychic Science in 1955, Clive-Ross became editor of the long-established Spiritualist journal Light. Under his editorship, the journal expanded its scope to include articles on occultism, comparative religion, and parapsychology, some of them highly critical and skeptical. Readers demanded that the journal revert to its former role as a Spiritual-ist publication. Clive-Ross pointed out that he had accepted editorship on the condition that Light be an independent journal. Subsequently, he resigned and Dr. V. F. Underwood took over as editor in a voluntary capacity, the journal resuming its stance of propagating the case for Spiritualism and psychical research.

Clive-Ross formed Perennial Books to specialize in metaphysics, philosophy, and religion. He has retained a critical faculty in dealing with occult subjects, believing that there is a good deal of fraud or self-deception in Spiritualism and psychical research.