Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in 1859 and died in 1930. He’s best known as the creator of the Sherlock Holmes. But here are five things about him that you may not know.
1 – Conan Doyle was a physician. He attended the University of Edinburgh Medical School and graduated in 1881 with a Bachelor of Medicine and Mastery of Surgery.
2 – He worked as a ship’s surgeon on a whaling vessel.
3 – Conan Doyle was not knighted for his Sherlock Holmes stories. The War in South Africa: Its Causes and Conduct caught the eye of the monarchy. In it, Conan Doyle comes to Great Britain’s defense against charges of war crimes in the Boer War.
4 – George Edalji was an innocent man convicted of mutilating and killing livestock. Who helped him prove his innocence? The case was solved by Arthur Conan Doyle. Sir Arthur solved two real-life crime cases, the George Edalji case and the Oscar Slater case.
5 – Conan Doyle believed in Spiritualism. It’s true. The man who created the ever-logical Sherlock Holmes believed in spirits and things like automatic writing.
You can learn more about all of these subjects at our partner site, Conan Doyle Info. As the site says, Sherlock Holmes is just the beginning.
In January of this year Anthony Horowitz made a surprising announcement at a meeting of the Sherlock Holmes Society. The Conan Doyle Estate had authorized Horowitz to write a new Sherlock Holmes novel. It was an absolutely unprecedented event. The Estate had never before made such an arrangement.
The new Sherlock Holmes novel, The House of Silk, is now available and getting great reviews.
The Huffington Post ~ A book firmly rooted in the style of Doyle, faithful to the character as created and with just enough wiggle room to allow the author to say all the things he’s been longing to say about the world of 221B Baker Street…THE HOUSE OF SILK will satisfy.
Publishers Weekly (starred review) ~ The hype surrounding what’s being billed as the first pastiche ever officially approved by the Conan Doyle estate is amply justified … authentic. Horowitz gets everything right-the familiar narrative voice, brilliant deductions, a very active role for Watson, and a perplexing and disturbing series of puzzles to unravel-and the legion of fans of the originals will surely be begging for Horowitz to again dip into Watson’s trove of untold tales.
If you have a Kindleand are a little unsure about the whole Conan Doyle replacement issue, then you can download a sample chapter and check it out before you commit to buying the book.
If you haven’t seen this modern day retelling of the Sherlock Holmes stories then you’re in for a treat. Sherlock brilliantly walks the line between staying true to the works of Conan Doyle and giving the tale a new twist.
Wait until you see what they did with the phrase “three pipe problem.” Here’s the original quote: