Melvyn Willin was born in England, educated at Francis Bacon Grammar School and took degrees at several British universities including doctorates in paramusicology at Sheffield and history at Bristol. Melvin devotes a large amount of his life to the study and lecturing of psychical research. He is the Honorary Archive Officer to the Society for Psychical Research and a consultant to the Ghost Club. His viewpoint on the investigations of alleged paranormal activity is skeptical, but with a considerable degree of open-mindedness. He frequently speaks at conferences, publishes articles in academic journals, and recently completed a project administrated by Cambridge University to digitize hundreds of videos of alleged paranormal phenomena and related material.