Episode 99: Chris Redmond

by Scott Monty June 30, 2016

"Billy had appeared in answer to a ring." [MAZA] 

It's a rare thing to find a Sherlockian legend these days, but Chris Redmond, BSI ("Billy"), ASH, MBt certainly qualifies as one. From his investiture in the Baker Street Irregulars at the tender age of 16 to his long association with the Bootmakers of Toronto, he is a respected speaker at all kinds of Sherlockian events. And online, he's probably best known for his longstanding and comprehensive reference site Sherlockian.net.

Chris's writing output is impressive, steady and ranges from the scholarly to the humorous. In Bed with Sherlock Holmes, Welcome to America, Mr. Sherlock Holmes and A Sherlock Holmes Handbook are all well known and in depth volumes about Arthur Conan Doyle's great detective. But in this interview, we move beyond the written page and get into Chris's inspirations and aspirations (still!).

You'll learn what Chris's initial career choice was before moving along to communications and how that initial proclivity stayed with him. You'll hear about some of Chris's great speeches, from the man who loved women to the hilarious take on how to give a Sherlockian presentation. As if there isn't enough to content with in simply concepting and assembling one, Chris shares the most difficult part of compiling a comprehensive biography of some 800 individuals. And finally, we have Chris's next book to look forward to in which he challenges each of 60 authors to determine why every Sherlock Holmes story is the best.

As usual, we couldn't do this without the significant support of Mary Miller for her extraordinary Patreon support! If you contribute at Mary's level, you get mentioned on the show. But we welcome any amount of support that you can muster.

Notes

1:50 Welcome and please take our survey at ihose.co/ihosesurvey
5:25 Sponsor: Amanda Lester, Detective
6:48 Introducing Chris Redmond
8:46 First meeting with Sherlock Holmes
11:25 The Toronto Public Library's Arthur Conan Doyle Collection
13:21 Discovering a world of Sherlock Holmes beyond the original stories
16:25 Chris gets started on the Internet
20:33 Setting the course for Sherlockian.net
26:19 Sponsor: The Baker Street Journal
27:50 Finding inspiration and training throughout one's career, and the Spiritualizing Sherlock Holmes project
33:20 Developing the content for A Quick Succession of Subjects
44:50 The impact of color in the Sherlock Holmes stories
48:22 Sponsor: Wessex Press
49:45 Lives Beyond Baker Street
59:10 An upcoming book project: About 60: Why Every Sherlock Holmes Story Is the Best
1:04:25 What Chris is reading now and his book habits
1:09:47 Wrap up

Sponsors

This episode includes our two longtime sponsors and a special sponsor who is supporting us for the first half of this year:

• The Wessex Press, featuring A Quick Successful of Subjects 
• The Baker Street Journal, where Sherlock Holmes: Behind the Canonical Screen is now available. 
• And Paula Berinstein's Amanda Lester, Detective series for young adults is now available as a four-volume box set.

Would you care to become a sponsor? You can find more information here.

Download [Save As] | File size 35.4 MB, 1:17:20

Links:

• Sherlockian.net
• The Bootmakers of Toronto
• The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Public Library
• The best fanfic on Sherlockian.net
• Chris Redmond on Twitter: @darkgreendesk
• Chris's output on I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere
• A Quick Succession of Subjects
• The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes
• Lives Beyond Baker Street: A Biographical Dictionary of Sherlock Holmes's Contemporaries
• Chris's article on IHOSE: His Last Bow - The Power of Women
• Wildside Press
• Mark It And Strike It by Steven Allen
• Leave us a rating or review on iTunes by going here
• The I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere Patreon page
• The IHOSE listener survey

Many more links, articles and images are available in our Flipboard and Scoop.it sites at ihose.co/flipsherlock and ihose.co/scoopsherlock, as well as on the The Sherlock Holmes Community on Google+ (with over 3,700 members), as well as through our accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and Tumblr.

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Your thoughts on the show? Leave a comment below, send us an email (comment AT ihearofsherlock DOT com), call us at (774) 221-READ (7323).

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