Renée Haynes


Renée Oriana Haynes, also known as Renée Tickell was a British novelist and psychical researcher.

Biography

Haynes was born in London and attended St Hugh's College, Oxford receiving a BA and majors in law and history. Haynes worked with the British Council as a director of book reviews. She joined the Society for Psychical Research in 1946 and edited the society's journal from 1970 to 1981. She was the daughter of E. S. P. Haynes and Oriana Huxley Waller. She was a cousin of Aldous Huxley.
During 1928-1929, for nine months she worked for the publishing firm Geoffrey files. In 1929, she married novelist Jerrard Tickell, they had three sons: Crispin, Patrick, and Tom. She became a Roman Catholic in 1942. Psychical researcher Robert Ashby wrote that Haynes was "a cautious student of psi, and a devout Roman Catholic. She has discussed the relationship of psi phenomena with basic tenets of Catholicism and finds the relationship largely sympathetic."
Haynes was a childhood friend of Hilaire Belloc and later wrote a biography about him. She was a close friend of Evelyn Underhill.

Reception

Her book The Hidden Springs argued for extrasensory perception. Psychologist C. E. M. Hansel gave the book a negative review claiming Haynes had ignored studies which provided no support for ESP. Haynes had written about the Fox sisters but Hansel wrote her account was incomplete and "no mention is made of their long history of exposures or of the fact that they made a full public confession in which they stated that all the phenomena with which they were associated were faked."
Haynes wrote a biography of Pope Benedict XIV. Eric Cochrane, professor of history at the University of Chicago criticized the book for original research and concluded "anyone who wants to know who Benedict really was and what he really accomplished would do better, at least until an adequate biography is written."

Publications