I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere

Episode 77: The Speckled Band of Boston

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"It is a nice household." [SPEC]</h4>
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It's been exactly one month since our last episode, as is our tradition on the 15th of every month, we bring you another episode of our show. In this episode, come with us to Boston as we investigate the Speckled Band of Boston - the oldest scion society of the Baker Street Irregulars, which was founded in 1940.<br />
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In addition to a recap of some of the main Sherlock Holmes news of the last month, we bring you a number of special audio features. Burt and Scott both attended the 75th annual dinner of the Speckled Band of Boston and captured some audio of the evening, to give you a sense of what goes on at this august institution.<br />
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We ran into James O'Leary, a contributor of this site, and he presented us with copies of his entry in the <a href="http://johnhwatsonsociety.com/monographs" target="_blank">John H. Watson Monograph Series</a>, <i>Some Observations Upon the Early Writings of John H. Watson, MD, 1887-1894</i>. <b>We have an extra copy to give away</b> - please listen in to the show around the 12-minute mark to hear how you might win it.<br />
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Another treasure is Dan Posnansky, BSI ("Colonel Hayter"), the current Keeper of the Speckled Band. We've known Dan for years and have heard his talks about his very impressive holdings, but we never had the chance to get him on the show. We rectified that this time, and we have a 45-minute interview with him as part of this Speckled Band spectacular.<br />
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One of the names Dan mentioned is Dirk Struik, whose signature you can see on this program from the 1945 Speckled Band dinner:<br />
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<a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/265468333/The-Speckled-Band-5th-Anniversary-Dinner-Program" style="text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="View The Speckled Band 5th Anniversary Dinner Program on Scribd">The Speckled Band 5th Anniversary Dinner Program</a></div>
<iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="undefined" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_97794" scrolling="no" src="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/265468333/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true" width="100%"></iframe><br />
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Mental Exaltation</h3>
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We're pleased to bring you another entry in our "Mental Exaltation" quiz program, inspired by NPR's <i>Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me!</i> and written by IHOSE quizmaster Nick Martorelli. <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2015/04/qualify-for-next-ihose-quiz.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Find our how you can qualify to win</a>.</div>
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"My mind," he said, "rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation.</blockquote>
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We're pleased to welcome Madelyn Covey of Emeryville, CA to the show as our contestant. Madelyn, who has written "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJaYiAz2fp0" target="_blank">Conductor of Light</a>," a song dedicated to John Watson, joined us for a band-themed quiz. Listen to see how she did.<br />
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We wrap up with our regular Gas-Lamp reading, this time taken from two unlikely sources: poems "The Fog Hangs Deep in Baker Street" from <i>The Tavern Club at 75</i> and "Report of the Poet Laureate at the Speckled Band Dinner May 15, 1959" from <i>The Third Cab</i>.</div>
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<a href="http://traffic.libsyn.com/ihearofsherlock/ihearofsherlock077.mp3" target="_blank">Download</a> [Save As] | File size 54.1 MB, 1:55:24</h4>
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Links:</h3>
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<li>Stan Freberg passes away. Hear him on <a href="http://www.doctorfloyd.com/media/season7" target="_blank">The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd</a>.</li>
<li>The <a href="http://silentfilm.org/" target="_blank">San Francisco Silent Film Festival</a> is screening the <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2014/10/breaking-long-lost-william-gillette.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">lost Sherlock Holmes film</a> on May 31.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2015/04/new-mr-holmes-trailer.html#.VUmPoPlVikr" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">More Mr. Holmes trailers</a> have been released, including one with Nicholas Rowe</li>
<li>The <i>Sherlock</i> Christmas special <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/32380304/benedict-cumberbatchs-sherlock-goes-back-to-1895" target="_blank">will be set in 1895</a>.</li>
<li>The <a href="http://bsitrust.org/" target="_blank">new BSI Trust website</a> is up.</li>
<li>Information about Sherlockian societies in Episodes <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose04" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">04</a> and <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose05" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">05</a>.</li>
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Many more links, articles and images are available in our Flipboard and Scoop.it sites at <a href="http://ihose.co/flipsherlock" target="_blank">ihose.co/flipsherlock</a> and <a href="http://www.scoop.it/t/sherlock-holmes" target="_blank">ihose.co/scoopsherlock</a>, as well as on our accounts on <a href="http://facebook.com/ihearofsherlock">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/ihearofsherlock">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://instagram.co/ihearofsherlock" target="_blank">Instagram</a>.<br />
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Your thoughts on the show? Leave a comment below, send us an email (ihearofsherlock AT gmail DOT com), call us at (774) 221-READ (7323).<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>
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Sponsors</h3>
This episode includes two sponsors that deserve your attention:<br />
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<a href="http://www.wessexpress.com/" target="_blank">Wessex Press</a> (check out the new <a href="http://wessexpress.com/html/newspaper.html" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle in the Newspapers Volume 1</a>)<br />
<a href="http://www.bakerstreetjournal.com/" target="_blank"><i>The Baker Street Journal</i></a>, where you should get <a href="http://www.bakerstreetjournal.com/itemsforsale/subscriptions.html" target="_blank">your annual subscription</a> in now to secure all four issues and a very special Christmas Annual about <i>The Seven Per-Cent Solution</i>.</div>
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And special thanks to Elizabeth Ong, James O'Leary and Mary Miller for your generous donations. If you would like to <a href="https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=hK1xNvhQD0hKUPaO-TnV5azaGpfRrj_75PdqgxehR-vhAaZ3WgAkiSXu6LC&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8d96f000117187ac9edec8a65b311f447e" target="_blank">help support I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere</a>, you can <a href="https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=hK1xNvhQD0hKUPaO-TnV5azaGpfRrj_75PdqgxehR-vhAaZ3WgAkiSXu6LC&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8d96f000117187ac9edec8a65b311f447e" target="_blank">click here</a> or on the "Donate" button in the upper portion of the site.<br />
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<b>Bonus photos:</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTqZgwS5PzA4sX2qpYb6lXnI9SjF5YHKcLbViFz-8HWDMuSFu6b6ixBT3ilfNz3w1T6KYqi3U-1prDX0WG-zVKm7EpYi5Llm-AaE3hxafR0JU8AGOFmEcUJ2p-b1Af4a55Kn0acjLIEqSI/s1600/Band+flag.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Speckled Band flag" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTqZgwS5PzA4sX2qpYb6lXnI9SjF5YHKcLbViFz-8HWDMuSFu6b6ixBT3ilfNz3w1T6KYqi3U-1prDX0WG-zVKm7EpYi5Llm-AaE3hxafR0JU8AGOFmEcUJ2p-b1Af4a55Kn0acjLIEqSI/s200/Band+flag.JPG" title="The flag of the Speckled Band" width="150" /></a>  <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFFw7DpL2uPCPU6CBpOzWhhl5LM35ugjaw2QXAmaGUrjJTwMVCfQczQbyPrZ7usuxyiRuX7wN-t3dR7qnKr_yjkaGhDR8YCBf7vPsxdZws_bPGxGV5jBN0isR1RNYtqqi9em9w_6MY2m5K/s1600/Tavern+Club.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Tavern Club, Boylston Place, Boston" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFFw7DpL2uPCPU6CBpOzWhhl5LM35ugjaw2QXAmaGUrjJTwMVCfQczQbyPrZ7usuxyiRuX7wN-t3dR7qnKr_yjkaGhDR8YCBf7vPsxdZws_bPGxGV5jBN0isR1RNYtqqi9em9w_6MY2m5K/s200/Tavern+Club.JPG" title="The Tavern Club of Boston" width="149" /></a>  <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2SdC5fHU42kzny1_ewnX87aFNcSrqDnY2EpxANCNGO1k-f9l6E03Nd_DFoAEKgocxRBdRvwHazMsQt8LFRSbNab1emVOrUd2aSMwbp3r0q-XD16Xw_39A01Z3YhshkakcT8WyDaRSUI3V/s1600/The+Band+dinner.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Speckled Band 75th annual dinner" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2SdC5fHU42kzny1_ewnX87aFNcSrqDnY2EpxANCNGO1k-f9l6E03Nd_DFoAEKgocxRBdRvwHazMsQt8LFRSbNab1emVOrUd2aSMwbp3r0q-XD16Xw_39A01Z3YhshkakcT8WyDaRSUI3V/s200/The+Band+dinner.JPG" title="Dinner at the Speckled Band" width="149" /></a></div>
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Episode 77: The Speckled Band of Boston

"It is a nice household." [SPEC] It's been exactly one month since our last episode, as is our tradition on the 15th...

+ Read more »

by Scott Monty

The Sherlock Holmes Exhibition Catalogue is Here

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"the adequate cataloguing of one of those cabinets" [3GAR]</h4>
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Did you manage to make it to London between October 2014 and April 2015? Neither did we. What we missed was the <a href="http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/archives/sherlock-holmes/" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes exhibit at the Museum of London</a>. However, we heard from many readers and listeners who did, and they were universally thrilled at the visit.<br />
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The exhibition was remarkably well done, and it included everything from props and costumes from the BBC's <i>Sherlock</i> to original Conan Doyle manuscripts and Sidney Paget illustrations. Material was culled from around the world, from collectors and institutions alike, and it made for what was probably the most heralded Sherlock Holmes display since the Festival of Britain of 1951 that brought us the recreation of the sitting rooms at 221B Baker Street - a set that is now housed by the Sherlock Holmes Pub.<br />
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But don't fret if you missed the opportunity to see all of these remarkable items together in one place. Now, courtesy of the Baker Street Irregulars Press is a remarkable catalogue - <i><a href="http://bakerstreetjournal.com/london.html" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Never Lived and Will Never Die - The Museum of London Exhibition</a>.</i></div>
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<br /><br />Compiled by Nicholas Utechin, BSI ("The Ancient British Barrow") and Catherine Cooke, BSI ("<i>The Book of  Life</i>") with a foreword by Alex Werner, the Exhibition's curator, this volume provides an illustrated record of the Exhibition and the "wonderful stuff of Sherlockian collecting fantasy." </div>
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Highlights include the two most important sheets regarding the birth of Sherlock Holmes, three original Holmes manuscripts, two Beeton's Christmas Annuals, eight Sidney Paget original drawings and one by Frederick Dorr Steele. Accompanying the illustrations are the compilers' comments, as well as selected Museum of London captions and contributions by Glen Miranker, BSI ("<i>The Origin of Tree Worship</i>") and Constantine Rossakis, BSI ("St. Bartholomew's Hospital").</div>
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The volume is 96 pages and measures 9.75" x 7.5" and is <a href="http://bakerstreetjournal.com/london.html" target="_blank">available from the <i>Baker Street Journal</i> site</a> for $20 plus shipping.</div>
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We plan to buy one, even though the BSJ (our sponsors) didn't send us a review copy. (cough)<br /><br />
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And just in case you wanted to see more, below are some images from <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/shsl/sets/72157648762051964" target="_blank">Douglas Wilmer's visit</a> to the Exhibition earlier this year, courtesy of the <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/shsl/" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes Society of London's Flickr account</a>.<br />
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The Sherlock Holmes Exhibition Catalogue is Here

"the adequate cataloguing of one of those cabinets" [3GAR] Did you manage to make it to London between October 2014 and A...

+ Read more »

by Scott Monty

Ferreting Out Untold Tales from the Canon: An Interview with Author Hugh Ashton

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"His name is Hugh" [TWIS]</h4>
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There are a number of stories mentioned within the canon that were never actually completed by Dr. John H. Watson.  While <i>The Hound of the Baskervilles</i> mentions Holmes's investigation into the sudden death of Cardinal Tosca, it is up to the reader to ponder the details of the case.<br />
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That is, until Hugh Ashton discovered a number of notes from the good doctor, and completed a number of untold tales. Ever wonder what happened in the Conk-Singleton forgery case? Now, dear reader, you can discover the answer! These stories as well as several other Sherlock Holmes tales make up the author's Deed Box and Dispatch Box series.  Not content to settle on only editing the works of Dr. Watson, Mr. Ashton also writes the delightful children's book series, <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1QEcZAI" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sherlock Ferret</a></i>, and has penned several thrillers and other short story collections.  I had a chance to interview the well-regarded Sherlockian via email from his home in Kamakura, Japan.<br />
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<b>I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere:  You are well known for your traditional Sherlock Holmes pastiches, particularly your stories in the <a href="http://221beanbakerstreet.info/" target="_blank">Notes from the Deed Box</a> series.  A number of your tales are untold adventures mentioned in the original Sherlock Holmes adventures.  How do you develop a full tale from a mere mention of a case in the canon?</b></h4>
<b>Hugh Ashton: </b>The case develops itself. By this, I mean that I have a rather cinematic imagination, the scene presents itself in my mind, and the characters play out their actions, depending on what happens to the characters. Watson doesn’t know the ending to the case until Holmes reveals it, and neither do I, many times. I am perfectly capable of getting about 75 percent of the way through an adventure without knowing how it will work out.<br />
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I’ve been told I have a criminal mind, which would either make me a good cop, or a replacement for Moriarty (though I lack criminal tendencies, which is a good thing for all concerned, I feel). So I think like the villain in the case, and the motive, the means, and the opportunity come to me. I may then have to backtrack in the story and plant some clues for Holmes to discover (and Watson to see, but not observe). But basically, I am living the story as Watson lives it. It’s stretching things to say that I become Watson, but I see the adventure through his viewpoint, and I don’t have an overarching overview most of the time. Sometimes I will wake up in the night, or while eating breakfast, and exclaim “So that’s how he did it!”. And the story has just written itself. All I have to do is filter it through Watson’s eyes, and put it into the computer. <br />
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Sometimes ACD leaves you with a wonderful opening, such as “the remarkable worm, said to be unknown to science”, and you just have to take it from there, as I did in my first collection, <i>Tales from the Deed Box of John H. Watson, MD</i>. In that case, the canonical reference is the climax of the adventure. Sometimes he leaves you with a very brief description, which nonetheless intrigues, such as the loss of Holmes’ left canine in the waiting-room at Charing Cross station. This formed the hook for “The Hand of Glory” in The Last Notes from the Dispatch-box, but it was not the climax, but just one of the events in the adventure, albeit one that Holmes would remember for the rest of his life!<br />
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I think it’s also important to have a reason why the untold tales remained unpublished. Scandal in high places (my “Giant Rat” or the uncanonical “Enfield Rope”) or embarrassment to Holmes (my “Phillimore” describes a very ambivalent relationship between Holmes and the police), or maybe there is some indelicacy (a sexual aspect, perhaps, which would prevent Watson from revealing all, as in The Darlington Substitution) are good reasons.<br />
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<h4>
<b>IHOSE: The <a href="http://sherlockferret.info/index.html" target="_blank">Sherlock Ferret </a>series is your Sherlock Holmes book series for children.  What made you decide to turn the great detective and his friends into talking animals?  </b></h4>
<b>HA:</b> It was Vinnie, the ferret who shares her life with Andy Boerger, who does the fantastic illustrations for Sherlock Ferret, and has also published several books of his own writing with Inknbeans.<br />
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Andy loves his ferret, and puts drawings of her on Facebook. I asked him if he could produce a picture of a ferret as Sherlock Holmes. And he came up with this wonderful picture of a ferret with a violin.<br />
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From that, it was a short step to populating the Sherlock Ferret universe. Watson – we settled on a mouse. It suits him, and he has a very distinct personality (as does Sherlock Ferret, of course). He has very fine whiskers, of which he is particularly proud, and he is rather put upon by Sherlock Ferret, who is somewhat selfish and self-centered, but though he grumbles at times to himself and his readers about Sherlock, he is a very loyal and decent little beast with a big heart.<br />
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Andy draws lovely rhinoceroses, so we decided that Lestrade should be a rhinoceros (though not a very big one). Colonel Sebastian Moorhen was a no-brainer. Moriarty was originally going to be a crow, but eventually turned into a magpie. The Bakery Irregulars (Sherlock and Watson live under Mrs. Hudson’s bakery) are caterpillars. I had originally wanted Wiggins the Woodlouse, but they’re a bit icky to many people, so we settled on caterpillars.<br />
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In the second book, <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1QEd8Eo" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Multiplying Masterpieces</a></i>, we had fun with artists’ names. The villain is Pablo Pigasso, and Vincent van Goat, and Frieda Koala are mentioned. Thanks to Jo at Inknbeans for some of these. The Poisoned Pond has more of a message than the others, but it tries not to beat readers over the head with it. <br />
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I have no children of my own, but I found it easy to write in a style that seems to have found acceptance with younger readers, while still making the stories interesting enough for their parents. The process of writing was a two-way thing. Andy gave me plot ideas, either directly, or through details in his pictures, and I suggested some ideas for illustrations to him. We developed the stories together – it wasn’t a question of my writing a story and asking him to put pictures to it. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjus-KPsLheJy4WZTZbPesYIThYed3aIZLsR9BuMomhiyYqwpFv0E31PGypAf50DVCJHfcBIcO7Qav591bEN6hU5BC61a4Wd83YtWn33CJcNCIpjdi7I7XiH3afTypDjH6mhVcBVDs0L1BL/s1600/Sherlock+Ferret+-+Ashton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Sherlock Ferret with Inspector Lestrade and Dr. Watson" border="0" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjus-KPsLheJy4WZTZbPesYIThYed3aIZLsR9BuMomhiyYqwpFv0E31PGypAf50DVCJHfcBIcO7Qav591bEN6hU5BC61a4Wd83YtWn33CJcNCIpjdi7I7XiH3afTypDjH6mhVcBVDs0L1BL/s640/Sherlock+Ferret+-+Ashton.jpg" title="Sherlock Ferret at home" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sherlock Ferret and Dr. Watson with Inspector Lestrade</td></tr>
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<b>IHOSE: You have been residing in Japan for several decades now.  How has living in another country influenced your writing?</b></h4>
That’s an excellent question. I am very out of touch with contemporary UK memes and language. I always tell people that when I left the UK, a “mobile” was something you hung in a child’s bedroom, and “text” was a noun, not a verb. That means that I really can’t write contemporary fiction about the UK (or the USA, since I’ve never lived there).<br />
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So… it’s back to the past for me, or writing about Japan (we’re talking fiction here). There are two basic genres about Japan. One is the “cherry blossoms and mystic Orient”, and the other is the “ninja thriller”. Both are clichés, to my mind, and have been successfully exploited by better writers than me.<br />
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I’ve written a Japan-based thriller, <a href="http://www.atthesharpeend.com/" target="_blank"><i>At the Sharpe End</i></a>, which is now published by Inknbeans Press, and which deals with the bank crash of 2008 (where I had quite a lot of personal experience, at first- and second-hand). No ninjas! But, and this is what introduced me to Inknbeans in the first place, I had also written a few short stories about older Japanese people, <a href="http://amzn.to/1IxTOFY" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><i>Tales of Old Japanese</i></a>. Inknbeans had told me they wanted to publish these, and the Sherlock Holmes adventures leapfrogged over them. I do recommend these stories, by the way. They are the nearest thing to literature that I have had published so far.<br />
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But Japan doesn’t have the interest outside the country that once it did, and though there are people producing excellent work in these genres, really, it’s not for me.<br />
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So, back to the past. Inknbeans has just published a Jules Verne-type story, <a href="http://amzn.to/1PfoUYo" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><i>The Untime</i></a>; I hesitate to call it a pastiche, though it’s written in a contrived style, as if it were a 19th-century translation from the French. Shades of Verne, Wells, Dr. Who, and a little H.P. Lovecraft stirred into the mix. I actually think it’s pretty good stuff.<br />
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And Sherlock Holmes, one of my loves from an early age, is a natural. ACD’s style is fun, and (for me at least) fairly easy to imitate. And I love mysteries. <br />
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But it is a little odd, maybe, that Sherlockian pastiches are coming from a Brit living in Japan.<br />
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<h4>
<b>IHOSE: You have a story included in the upcoming anthology The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories.  Can you tell us a little about the story without giving anything away? Also, how did you ended up becoming involved in this project?</b></h4>
Yes, it’s set in Lichfield, Staffordshire, which is a city with which I have family associations (my father worked there) and I will soon have closer associations with the place (I won’t say more right now). It uses real locations (inn names, street names, geographical features, etc.), which is fun. You will be able to find all the places on Google Maps.<br />
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It’s a fairly straightforward locked-room murder. A father retains Holmes to clear his son’s name of the murder, but at the same time, he seems to want his son to be found guilty.<br />
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David Marcum contacted me, I asked permission from Inknbeans to contribute, and Jo, my editor, said “yes”, and I wrote the story. Simple.<br />
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<h4>
<b>IHOSE: The question I ask all Sherlockians.  If you were stranded on a desert with only one Sherlock Holmes story, which would it be and why?</b></h4>
Probably SIGN. Though I love REDH and EMPT, SIGN has more to it, and the backstory doesn’t distract as much as in VALL or STUD. Why not HOUN? Because I don’t think Holmes is as effective outside London as he is in London, or the suburbs. I do find it hard to conceive of him roughing it in a Neolithic hut. He’s a townie, and the tweeds and deerstalker are those of a city-dweller playing at being a countryman.<br />
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<h4>
<b>IHOSE: What are your current projects?</b></h4>
We’re talking fiction here, of course? A sequel to <i>The Untime</i>, which explores some more Jungian ideas (<i>The Untime</i> is very Jungian in many ways).<br />
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There’s a contemporary thriller/adventure/something, <i>Leo’s Luck</i>, which is coming out in July. I am waiting for an endorsement from my friend Jake Adelstein, the author of <i>Tokyo Vice</i> (his book has been optioned as a movie, and will star Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) as Jake). It’s a little weird – rock and roll, money, telepathy, and some sex.<br />
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And… another box has been discovered. In a Facebook conversation with Luke Kuhns, I discovered the springboard for another Sherlockian adventure, and I am in the middle of another where Holmes is of assistance to the Scandinavian royal family. It’s a tangled tale of deceit and betrayal. There’ll be another collection of Sherlock Holmes adventures published before the end of the year. That’s a promise.<br />
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<h4>
<b>IHOSE: Anything else you'd like us to know?</b></h4>
I can’t let this opportunity go by without thanking Jo, my editor, and all the staff (and other writers) at Inknbeans Press, who have produced not only my books, but many others from many other authors, on a wide variety of subjects. I’ve received nothing but support and encouragement from these people, and Jo has become one of the pillars of my life. A good editor is so much more than a spelling-checker on legs – and Jo provides the impetus and the constructive criticism that every writer needs, as well as sound advice on matters that have little or nothing to do with writing.<br />
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Somehow, we have never met face-to-face, though this is something that I am sure will be remedied before too long.<br />
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Working with Inknbeans has taught me that, however much fun self-publishing may be (and it is fun, though very hard work at times), there is no substitute for productive collaboration with a professionally-minded publisher.<br />
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<b><i>For more on Hugh Ashton, see his author <a href="http://hughashtonbooks.info/about-hugh-ashton.html" target="_blank">web site</a>, his <a href="http://221beanbakerstreet.info/author.html" target="_blank">221 Bean Baker Street</a> site.</i></b><br />
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Ferreting Out Untold Tales from the Canon: An Interview with Author Hugh Ashton

"His name is Hugh" [TWIS] There are a number of stories mentioned within the canon that were never actually completed by ...

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by Belanger Books

A Study in Fitzroy - Inspiration for a Canonical Character

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"The chaplain, no less!" [GLOR]</h4>
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There were "some hundreds" of men named Henry Baker, according to "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle", but how many Fitzroy McPhersons would you expect?<br />
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The one we know is of course the hero of "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane", the victim of <i>Cyanea capillata</i>. But let me introduce you to the other Fitzroy Macpherson (note the slightly different spelling), who was — wait for it — a military chaplain. <br />
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Ewen George Fitzroy Macpherson was born in 1863 and educated at the University of Durham. He entered the Church of England clergy and served as a curate for four years, then joined the military chaplains' department and in 1892 was posted to Portsmouth, which is the home of the Royal Navy. He arrived in Portsmouth just too late to overlap with Arthur Conan Doyle, who had moved to Norwood in south London, but they must have had friends in common, perhaps through the Portsmouth Literary and Scientific Society, where ACD had first encountered Spiritualism and many of the other ideas that influenced his life.<br />
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And certainly ACD must have known about Macpherson during the South African War, in which the former was the harassed and unqualified doctor in charge of a field hospital, and the latter was chaplain for various British units. He served in Ladysmith during the famous three-month siege in 1899-1900, and came home from the war with two medals, eight "clasps", two "mentioned in despatches" distinctions and a promotion.<br />
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The case of the two Fitzroys was first noted by my father, <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2014/11/remembering-donald-redmond-bsi-2s.html#.VVAPEvlViko" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Don Redmond</a>, in <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1IsrS7T" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Sources</a></i> decades ago, but this more detailed information, and more, came to me from the very helpful David Blake, who is curator of the Museum of Army Chaplaincy at Amport, Hampshire. He was most interested to hear of a possible Sherlock Holmes connection to a long-ago chaplain — and I made a point of not spoiling "The Lion's Mane" for him by telling him exactly how Fitzroy McPherson, the one with "Mc" rather than "Mac" in his name, had met his painful end.<br />
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E. G. Fitzroy Macpherson was still a chaplain when World War I broke out, and served briefly with British troops in France before being called home to take an administrative job with what by now was the Royal Army Chaplains' Department. He retired from the armed forces in 1922 and died in 1926.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8qH6wrlVgj0XnurjSTBpdzQvRSbeSPZjx3BSWHfS2L5zZtRN-1wIyuxMHPX3xOGBc-jRX0uvzyH5sHLd3vW-eitBc3aZ_f_nWLZzf62lHk9z2BQysLUP5v29_81UAHffhEUtg8wqhWXjK/s1600/LION+-+Elcock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Lion's Mane - the end of Fitzroy McPherson" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8qH6wrlVgj0XnurjSTBpdzQvRSbeSPZjx3BSWHfS2L5zZtRN-1wIyuxMHPX3xOGBc-jRX0uvzyH5sHLd3vW-eitBc3aZ_f_nWLZzf62lHk9z2BQysLUP5v29_81UAHffhEUtg8wqhWXjK/s1600/LION+-+Elcock.jpg" title="The unfortunate end of Fitzroy McPherson [LION]" /></a></div>
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To be exact, he died November 28, 1926 — the day after "The Lion's Mane" had its first publication in <i>Liberty </i>magazine. (Publication in Britain, in the good old <i>Strand Magazine</i>, came a few days later.) This can't possibly be coincidence. It can only be that ACD heard of Macpherson's final illness in time to honor him by transferring his name to "a fine upstanding young fellow whose life had been crippled by heart trouble", the hero of one of his last Sherlock Holmes stories.<br />
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