Peter Karl Lamont is a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, working on the history, theory and performance of magic. He is an award-winning magician, Member of The Magic Circle, and a former president of the Edinburgh Magic Circle. He has performed and lectured across the world. He is the author of The Rise of the Indian Rope Trick: The Biography of a Legend, which discusses the Indian rope trick, and The first psychic: the peculiar mystery of a Victorian wizard, which traces the life and times of the "first psychic" Daniel Dunglas Home, a Scottish medium, born in Edinburgh.