I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere

The Secret of Sherlock’s Statue

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"For a long time he gazed upwards at it" [ABBE]</h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit6tHwNCl9Ui9uKScy080R8HW2O3fJ-aF8Ws_7bQ_jY0fWnUa9O-o7OFjQcU8WvKc_kAfcdMW7kS4_B12txkFSDJcT-Zwe3wlPiGJ1yX_EmAkwgHE4gz40qVlZOZ-u2W04jF9pVPDxsUew/s1600/statue.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Yes, we know this is the Sherlock Holmes statue in London, not Edinburgh" border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit6tHwNCl9Ui9uKScy080R8HW2O3fJ-aF8Ws_7bQ_jY0fWnUa9O-o7OFjQcU8WvKc_kAfcdMW7kS4_B12txkFSDJcT-Zwe3wlPiGJ1yX_EmAkwgHE4gz40qVlZOZ-u2W04jF9pVPDxsUew/s640/statue.jpg" title="Sherlock Holmes statue" width="640" /></a></div>
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Princes Street in Edinburgh, Scotland is one of the city’s main thoroughfares. Dominating the Princes Street Garden is an imposing 200 foot tall Victorian monument to Sir Walter Scott, described by writer Bill Bryson as looking like a “Gothic rocket ship.”<br />
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But a few minutes stroll up Leith Street will take you to Picardy Place and you will see a much smaller monument – a monument commemorating the birthplace of that other well-known Scottish writer so near and dear to our hearts, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  Doyle was born May 22nd, 1859 at 11 Picardy Place, near the top of Leith Walk. The building where he was born is no longer there but in its place is an oversized statue of Sherlock Holmes – a statue which has a secret unknown to most Sherlockians, even those who have stood before it and admired their literary hero.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_lOHVU6ldHN0fvJmGDKIiGhosvE164wqQQwULTJBWRte4UqQny6IMcPLVXpNTIJ7H-Ibk_yiQxKup-BjYbEaHoEh8CyV_jM9Z54eIbXS6mP5djOPUfgec62pbPcawyI9y0QKH4uGD55bg/s1600/Holmes+with+me.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Bob Stek and Sherlock Holmes in Edinburgh" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_lOHVU6ldHN0fvJmGDKIiGhosvE164wqQQwULTJBWRte4UqQny6IMcPLVXpNTIJ7H-Ibk_yiQxKup-BjYbEaHoEh8CyV_jM9Z54eIbXS6mP5djOPUfgec62pbPcawyI9y0QKH4uGD55bg/s640/Holmes+with+me.jpg" title="Bob Stek with the Sherlock Holmes statue" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our contributor Bob Stek, BSI and the Sherlock Holmes statue.</td></tr>
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Within sight and a few hundred feet from the statue stands <a href="http://www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk/theconandoyleedinburgh/" target="_blank">The Conan Doyle Pub</a> on York Place.  A plaque on the exterior of the pub shares some history of Picardy Place as well as a snippet of misdirection about what Holmes is contemplating as he gazes downward. The plaque reads:<br />
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Located close to The Conan Doyle is Picardy Place, where the pub’s namesake, the great author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was born on May 22nd 1859. There have been houses on this site since 1685, when French refugees (who had fled the province of Picardy, due to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes when Louis XIV declared Protestantism illegal) built Picardy village. Today, an over life-sized bronze statue of Conan Doyle’s greatest creation, Sherlock Holmes, stands opposite his birthplace. The most famous fictional detective is portrayed in meditation on the death of his author.</blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh23hc0iTOthSCqqL_tYEWPXZ9ir1fMJDPWHhCffbNt1thqwXdcg5IWWVzaGD4mKPmvSPu-zu9SNQKPXzQrxC9DEXpbbc-JhNXLwHTBcx9Qv4BC_dvhpJNQEA8lR_MAs55LuC9p-EixCjA9/s1600/Conan+Doyle+pub.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Conan Doyle Pub in Edinburgh" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh23hc0iTOthSCqqL_tYEWPXZ9ir1fMJDPWHhCffbNt1thqwXdcg5IWWVzaGD4mKPmvSPu-zu9SNQKPXzQrxC9DEXpbbc-JhNXLwHTBcx9Qv4BC_dvhpJNQEA8lR_MAs55LuC9p-EixCjA9/s640/Conan+Doyle+pub.jpg" title="The Conan Doyle, Edinburgh" width="640" /></a></div>
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Standing directly in front of the statue and looking up, it might appear that Holmes is deep in thought, looking towards the pavement, perhaps reflecting upon being at the site of the birthplace of Doyle, perhaps musing about his own seeming immortality as well as ‘the death of his author.’ </div>
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During his long career Holmes could be contemplative – we know that he carefully studied a rose and concluded that the “highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers.” [NAVA] Nonetheless Sherlockians admire Holmes for his ability not just to see, but to observe, to notice a trifle, and to deduce from it a clue and thereby solve a mystery. Holmes actively looked and observed. He once told Inspector Gregory that “I only saw it because I was looking for it.” [SILV]</div>
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It was not beyond Holmes to get on his hands and knees to carefully examine something on the ground, be it a footprint or tobacco ash.  Can we apply Holmes’ methods here, at his own statue? Perhaps Holmes is not in metaphysical contemplation, staring without seeing, without observing. But at what could he be looking?<br />
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An examination of the area in front of the statue reveals only stone pavers – no engraved dancing men or coded message to be seen.  But notice that the statue is on a pedestal and raised more than six feet off the ground.  From a slightly higher elevation on Picardy Place Roundabout, one can see his feet and that the bronze casting includes a portion of the ground upon which Holmes is standing.  At this distance, however, nothing can be seen or observed.<br />
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A modern day high tech solution might be to rig a selfie stick - or even better, a remote controlled quadcopter with a digital camera - and flit around and survey what is near to Holmes’ feet. Instead we will be true to the Master and his methods and physically position ourselves to use our own eyes.  With no handy step-ladder to be found, we note that there is a ledge about 18 inches high around the base of the pedestal. Even Watson’s war wound (gimpy leg or shoulder – take your pick) would not prevent him from stepping up on the corner of this ledge to get a closer view.  Due to recent rain, my photo shows a puddle of water partially obscuring something of interest. But when you are in Edinburgh, climb upon that corner ledge and confirm for yourself that there is indeed the “footprint of a gigantic hound!”<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF0W2AtPvE2VPuq1wcZDFa5ckZcID1FOpoMhJnIjrA8v7kROYeLjtlBDgG9O_z-h9jseCsEs6P8Gs8Ahc8z25M5Bn3Fipf-Y-Afjqcao1GBY-5_JKWoFdIPHsazEHDfieeQjO0CGc2Auga/s1600/hound+footprint.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt=""Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!"" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF0W2AtPvE2VPuq1wcZDFa5ckZcID1FOpoMhJnIjrA8v7kROYeLjtlBDgG9O_z-h9jseCsEs6P8Gs8Ahc8z25M5Bn3Fipf-Y-Afjqcao1GBY-5_JKWoFdIPHsazEHDfieeQjO0CGc2Auga/s640/hound+footprint.jpg" title="The footprint of a gigantic hound!" width="640" /></a></div>
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But wait – there is more!  Seen more clearly in the photo below is the pawprint of a much smaller animal – a clue outside the bounds of Canonical knowledge certainly.  Whatever could it mean?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMQPHpCPnunrPB99fx1RoezOLWYr5GBhja1Rr4Ti0XxV6_1gxp8cNH_hvIHYwoU5VkdsV77dZTG9EnlCrU4RQ0jVQyjv-WzB_vpSlxbzgNM4xPO8I6UXFVDEqpgPurvCig-kp8uEA910AO/s1600/Footprint+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The footprint of a less than gigantic hound" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMQPHpCPnunrPB99fx1RoezOLWYr5GBhja1Rr4Ti0XxV6_1gxp8cNH_hvIHYwoU5VkdsV77dZTG9EnlCrU4RQ0jVQyjv-WzB_vpSlxbzgNM4xPO8I6UXFVDEqpgPurvCig-kp8uEA910AO/s640/Footprint+2.jpg" title="Another footprint on the Sherlock Holmes statue" width="640" /></a></div>
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We are, after all, at the birthplace of Doyle. Did Doyle keep a pet which the sculptor wished to acknowledge? But that would be a very obscure bit of trivia to include, especially since Doyle was unlikely to even be aware of a family pet in the first year or so of his life.<br />
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If it is unrelated to Doyle’s birth, perhaps it is related to his birthplace. Picardy Place has no connection itself - but what of the city of Edinburgh, the city which approved the building of this memorial to one of its famous residents. Can we deduce a connection with Edinburgh? The paw print is not of sufficient size to be a companion print of a gigantic hound. It would have to belong to a much smaller dog.  That would most likely rule out half spaniel, half lurcher Toby from <i>The Sign of Four</i>. Is there a small dog strongly associated with Edinburgh, a small dog perhaps contemporaneous with Doyle?<br />
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Of course! No need to eliminate any impossible or improbable suspects, there is only one answer – <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greyfriars_Bobby" target="_blank">Greyfriars Bobby</a>! Known throughout Scotland, Bobby, a Skye terrier, was born about 1855 and for fourteen years guarded the grave of his owner. The statue of Bobby sits at the corner of Candlemaker’s Row and George IV Bridge, just a one mile walk from Picardy Place. A plaque on the base reads "A tribute to the affectionate fidelity of Greyfriars Bobby. In 1858, this faithful dog followed the remains of his master to Greyfriars Churchyard and lingered near the spot until his death in 1872."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAyPy7FVqQ44BKgj74I14NNJAmBpi6xCQ_Xr5OwCRBry7ome1AIxqNzOGnUtXp9wBxmZPR2fGP9ZG9hUcT9lSyZibfTdG0CDqChdFGO5G7yrjk98gZMep2ufXCc74gVJnJ26HGJbDAqpkR/s1600/Greyfriars+Bobby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The famous Greyfriars Bobby" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAyPy7FVqQ44BKgj74I14NNJAmBpi6xCQ_Xr5OwCRBry7ome1AIxqNzOGnUtXp9wBxmZPR2fGP9ZG9hUcT9lSyZibfTdG0CDqChdFGO5G7yrjk98gZMep2ufXCc74gVJnJ26HGJbDAqpkR/s640/Greyfriars+Bobby.jpg" title="Greyfriars Bobby" width="640" /></a></div>
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I only hope that no damage is done to the corner of the pedestal of the Holmes statue by legions of Sherlockians trying to see the two paw prints. Perhaps the city of Edinburgh would be wise to invest in a stone step or two to avoid wear on the ledge.<br />
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I am indebted to Rupert Maragh of the UK for introducing me to the ‘secret of the statue.’<br />
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<i>Robert Stek, BSI will be joining David Stuart Davies at the Arthur Conan Doyle Centre in Edinburgh during the <a href="https://www.edfringe.com/" target="_blank">Fringe Festival</a> in August, 2015. David Stuart Davies will be presenting “An Evening with Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle” and Dr. Stek will speak on “The Unusual Friendship of Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini.”</i><br />
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The Secret of Sherlock’s Statue

"For a long time he gazed upwards at it" [ABBE] Princes Street in Edinburgh, Scotland is one of the city’s main thorough...

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by Spocklock

The Mystery of William Gillette's Romantic Lead in the 1916 Sherlock Holmes Film

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"became entangled with this young person" [SCAN]</h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibxa-GlH2Iesf0_6L7l21X755ACs-dYUKuxs7zGmV_SFfrra87gw2c4VL4whbHA-YpbZ9H6PrNl_90g-mB5YZhxVHkbS2CzJfqU84FRVfr6aDJ7u9I7gxVHf12dTCbSXHKXWTQsPRMbUvN/s1600/Sherlock_Holmes_1916_still.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Holmes and his love interest" border="0" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibxa-GlH2Iesf0_6L7l21X755ACs-dYUKuxs7zGmV_SFfrra87gw2c4VL4whbHA-YpbZ9H6PrNl_90g-mB5YZhxVHkbS2CzJfqU84FRVfr6aDJ7u9I7gxVHf12dTCbSXHKXWTQsPRMbUvN/s640/Sherlock_Holmes_1916_still.jpg" title="William Gillette and Marjorie Kay in Sherlock Holmes (1916)" width="640" /></a></div>
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William Gillette famously wanted a love interest in his play "Sherlock Holmes", hence his telegram to Arthur Conan Doyle: "May I marry Holmes?" When he filmed the play in 1916, the silent movie that was thought lost but is  <a href="http://ihose.co/1916film" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">now being revealed   to the world</a>, Miss Alice Faulkner was there, ready to nestle up to Holmes in the final scene. The question is, <b><i>who played Alice Faulkner in the film that we're all going to be seeing this year?</i></b></div>
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We have always known that the actress was Marjorie Kay. But, well, who was Marjorie Kay? The <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0443130/" target="_blank">Internet Movie DataBase</a> and similar sources tell little or nothing about her. The answer can now be revealed, thanks to inquisitive questions on my part   and skillful genealogical research on the part of talented Sherlockian and historical researcher (and my good friend) <a href="http://wellreadsherlockian.com/" target="_blank">Leah Guinn</a> (her website is wellreadsherlockian.com and she's on Twitter as <a href="http://twitter.com/leahguinn" target="_blank">@LeahGuinn</a>).</div>
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The most remarkable thing we've discovered is that when she made the 1916 film, starring opposite the 62-year-old Gillette, Marjorie Kay was 17 years old. But there's a lot more to her life story than one film. Some highlights:</div>
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<li>Marjorie Kay was born November 2, 1898, in Detroit. (That date comes from a passport application she submitted in May 1916. We have not been able to see her actual birth certificate.) Her parents were  Canadian-born: Robert D. Kay, a jeweller,   and his wife, Margaret Griffin Kay. A number of newspaper mentions call her "a society girl".</li>
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<li>In 1916, presumably after completing <i>Sherlock Holmes</i> (which was released May 15 of that year), she joined the Naval Nurse Corps and went to Europe, where the United States was already providing hospital services even though it would be more   than another year before the US entered World War I. Between May and September she worked at a hospital at Neuilly-sur-Seine and possibly other hospitals, and drove an ambulance. Along the way the Detroit society girl made the acquaintance of Mrs. William   K. Vanderbilt, a pillar of New York society. (There were multiple Vanderbilts; this one was the former Anne Harriman Sands Rutherford, who had married a grandson of the original "Commodore" in 1903.)</li>
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<li>She came home from Europe in September, aboard the <i>SS Rochambeau</i>. Among the keepsakes she brought back was a belt to which were attached 154 military buttons, collar ornaments, shoulder badges, hat badges and belt buckles from Allied armies   and even those of Germany and Austria. The young nurse clearly got to know her patients well.</li>
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<li>Not too long after her return, she was apparently chosen as the model for a Red Cross fund-raising poster. She was dressed in nurse's garb and her hands and arms were outstretched. The key word on the poster: "Give." She was proud of it, and   kept a copy of the poster on the walls of the apartment that she and her husband occupied decades later in Hartford, Connecticut.</li>
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<li>She died June 25, 1949, in Hartford. An obituary says she had been married three times. Details of her marriages are far from clear, but at the time of her death she was officially Mrs. William L. Anderson.</li>
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<li>The obituary traces her career between 1916 and 1949 on the authority of "friends" who "recalled" that she had studied as a coloratura soprano and sung with Enrico Caruso at the Metropolitan Opera. Sometime in the 1920s she settled in Hartford,   opened a dancing school and later managed a talent agency.</li>
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<li>A 43-word obituary in <i>Variety </i>also mentioned Caruso, and said Kay had performed in "The Night Boat", a musical that ran on Broadway for most of 1920 before going on tour. (Much earlier,<i> Film Daily</i> in 1918, referring to Kay as "recently returned"   from France, said she had been signed to co-star in a movie depicting her war experiences. It would appear that nothing came of that project.)</li>
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There you are — a few facts about the young woman who played Sherlock Holmes's love interest and was immortalized in celluloid. Totally absent from the evidence, so far, is any hint of how she got the role in the first place. There is clearly   more of the story to be told, and our research is continuing.</div>
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<i>If you're unable to attend the screening of Sherlock Holmes at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival this weekend, you won't want to miss an opportunity to <a href="http://ihose.co/1916bluray" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">pre-order the DVD and Blu-ray</a>, which will be released in October.</i><br />
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The Mystery of William Gillette's Romantic Lead in the 1916 Sherlock Holmes Film

"became entangled with this young person" [SCAN] William Gillette famously wanted a love interest in his play "Sherl...

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by Chris Redmond

Conan Doyle Estate Sues Mr. Holmes

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"the relentless threat" [VALL]</h4>
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Well, they're at it again.<br />
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The Conan Doyle Estate, Ltd. - that business entity that takes responsibility for the financial interests (certainly not the reputational interests) of Conan Doyle's descendants - is suing to have the film <i>Mr. Holmes</i> halted. In a lawsuit filed the day before what would have been <a href="http://ihose.co/156ACD" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 156th birthday</a> (classy!), the CDEL named the film studio Miramax, its distributors Roadside Attractions and director Bill Condon - as well as publisher Penguin Random House and screenwriter Mitch Cullin, author of <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1FGJURG" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">A Slight Trick of the Mind</a></i>, upon which the film is based - as defendants in the suit.<br />
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Previously, the CDEL was under fire by Leslie Klinger, BSI ("The Abbey Grange"), who was defending his right to publish <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1StK5Fe" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">In the Company of Sherlock Holmes</a></i> without submitting to its extortionate requests. He filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Illinois. Ultimately, the U.S. courts determined that the first 50 of the Sherlock Holmes stories are in the public domain, with only the last 10 falling under copyright protection. [Details directly below]<br />
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<h3>
Timeline of Events</h3>
<ul>
<li><b>February 14, 2013</b>: Initial lawsuit filed by Leslie S. Klinger against the Conan Doyle Estate, Ltd.'s heavy-handed attempt to block <i>In the Company of Sherlock Holmes</i> on Amazon and other bookstores - <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2013/02/imagine-that-you-can-bully-me-chas_14.html#.VWDK7PlViko" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"don't imagine that you can bully me" [CHAS]</a></li>
<li><b>April 17, 2013</b>: Our coverage on <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose51" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Episode 51</a> of IHOSE</li>
<li><b>December 27, 2013</b>: Leslie Klinger granted an initial victory in the case - <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2013/12/plaintiff-victorious-in-free-sherlock.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"Ha! Nothing could be better." [STOC]</a></li>
<li><b>December 30, 2013</b>: A special <a href="http://ihose.co/freesherlock" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">#FreeSherlock episode</a> of IHOSE, featuring intellectual property legal scholar and expert Betsy Rosenblatt, BSI ("Lucy Ferrier")</li>
<li><b>January 4, 2014</b>: The Conan Doyle Estate issues a press release indicating that it would appeal the decision but that it is still the winner because it holds trademarks on the characters - <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2014/01/conan-doyle-estate-business-entity-on.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"spinning fine theories" [NOBL]</a></li>
<li><b>May 22, 2014</b>: An eyewitness recounted what happened during the appeal hearing - <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2014/05/an-eyewitness-account-to-free-sherlock.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"A higher judge had taken the matter in hand" [STUD]</a></li>
<li><b>June 16, 2014</b>: The appeal was denied by Judge Richard A. Posner, who rebuked the "quixotic" attempt by the Conan Doyle Estate, Ltd. to seek "perpetual, or nearly perpetual copyright protection" of the Sherlock Holmes character. <a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/234319104/Klinger-v-Conan-Doyle-Estate-Ltd-7th-Circuit-Court-of-Appeals-Decision" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"during these fruitless quests" [HOUN]</a></li>
<li><b>July 18, 2014</b>: After the CDEL filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) on July 11, the petition was turned down - <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2014/07/the-us-supreme-court-denies-conan-doyle.html#.VWDPSflViko" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"the last and highest court of appeal" [STUD]</a></li>
<li><b>July 20, 2014</b>: A discussion of all things #FreeSherlock on <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose66" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Episode 66</a> of IHOSE. </li>
<li><b>August 5, 2014</b>: The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the CDEL to cease extortion and pay Klinger's legal fees - <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2014/08/7th-circuit-orders-conan-doyle-estate.html#.VWDR0vlViko" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"your fees will be assured and you will be given a perfectly free hand" [ILLU]</a></li>
<li><b>November 3, 2014</b>: The SCOTUS refused to hear arguments in the case - <a href="https://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2014/11/supreme-court-wont-hear-freesherlock.html#.XC5mtlxKjb0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"the final discussion of those matters which lie between us" [FINA]</a></li>
<li><b>May 23, 2015</b>: <a href="https://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2015/05/conan-doyle-estate-sues-mr-holmes.html#.XvWd3UVKjb2" target="_blank">Conan Doyle Estate sues Miramax</a> over the release of the film <i>Mr. Holmes</i></li><li><b>August 29, 2015</b>: Conan Doyle Sues Own Estate from Beyond the Grave (satire) - <a href="https://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2015/08/conan-doyle-sues-own-estate-from-beyond.html#.X0f44MhKjb0" target="_blank">"opening a grave without the consent of next-of-kin" [HOUN]</a></li>
<li><b>September 5, 2015</b>: <a href="https://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2015/09/conan-doyle-estate-reaches-settlement.html#.XvWaHEVKjb0" target="_blank">Settlement reached</a> between CDEL and Miramax</li>
<li><b>November 23, 2015</b>: <a href="https://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2015/11/bombshell-interview-with-author-mitch.html#.XvWc40VKjb0" target="_blank">Bombshell interview</a> with author Mitch Cullin over the lawsuit</li><li><b>June 26, 2020</b>: Conan Doyle Estate is suing Netflix over <i>Enola Holmes</i> - <a href="https://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2020/06/the-conan-doyle-estate-is-suing-netflix.html#.X0f3gshKjb0" target="_blank">"repeated the same story with an absolute disregard" [VALL]</a></li>
</ul>
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<br />
This time, <a href="http://deadline.com/2015/05/mr-holmes-lawsuit-arthur-conan-doyle-estate-sues-bill-condon-1201431854/" target="_blank">the lawsuit was filed</a> in New Mexico (<a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/266283769/Mr-Holmes" target="_blank">read it here</a>), and it takes great pains to indicate that Cullin grew up in that state and visited John Bennett Shaw, BSI ("The Hans Sloane of My Age"), with access to his library. We also note that the U.S. representatives of the Conan Doyle Estate, Ltd., Hazelbaker and Lellenberg, Inc., reside in New Mexico.<br />
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<a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/266283769/Mr-Holmes#from_embed" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="View Mr Holmes on Scribd">Mr Holmes</a> on Scribd</div>
<iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="null" data-auto-height="true" frameborder="0" height="600" scrolling="no" src="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/266283769/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true&access_key=key-xKuOkCTkCvHIqZDbulZk" title="Mr Holmes" width="100%"></iframe><br />
<br />
We're not legal scholars, but there are elements of the legal filing that make more use of specific details about some of the written material and the subject matter than the previous lawsuits did. The CDEL claims that passages from "The Blanched Soldier" and "The Lion's Mane" were copied or assimilated in the new material. Whether or not those facts are relevant and compelling is up for the judicial system to decide.<br />
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<h4 style="text-align: center;">
"The greedy rogue. They are useful, these traitors, </h4>
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but I grudge them their blood-money."</h4>
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<b>- 'His Last Bow'</b></div>
</div>
<br />
<br />
But once again, we must question the motivations - and the common sense - of the Conan Doyle Estate, Ltd. First, we must ask: if the matter was such an egregious copyright infringement when <i>A Slight Trick of the Mind</i> was first published some 10 years ago, why wasn't the CDEL rabidly pursuing the author and his publisher then? You and we both know the answer: because it wasn't a global phenomenon then, as it is now, with Sir Ian McKellen in the starring role of <i>Mr. Holmes</i>.<br />
<br />
While we're at it, Sherlockian Brenda Rossini raised this issue:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The complaint now alleges that Cullin “copied entire passages from Conan Doyle’s copyrighted story ‘The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier.’ Yet, the estate ignored P.D. James’ unattributed gleaning from The Boscombe Valley Mystery in her book<i> Death Comes to Pemberley.</i></blockquote>
Interestingly, the CDEL indicates that it has managed rights with productions such as <i>Sherlock</i>, <i>Young Sherlock Holmes</i> and <i>Elementary</i> - none of which have anything to do with Holmes's retirement.<br />
<br />
In terms of common sense, rather than making a major kerfuffle - on the birthday of their progenitor's birth, no less - the CDEL is now calling for a jury trial and the halting of any production that includes the so-called infringing material. Wouldn't it make more sense to allow the film to become the blockbuster that it is destined to be and then ask for a percentage of the profits?<br />
<br />
Not in the case of the Conan Doyle Estate, Ltd. Remember, their <i>modus operandi</i> is to allow plans of publishers and producers to get to the point of no return and then send a threatening letter or file a claim, so that the recipients pay them hush money to make the issue go away. It's been their unabashed business model for the last few years, and the weak have succumbed to its invidious intentions.<br />
<br />
As to us, we feel that the business entity that represents what is left of Conan Doyle's estate is doing irreparable damage to his reputation. Although we all know that Doyle himself wasn't quite so concerned as he famously told playwright and actor William Gillette that he could "marry him, murder him or do whatever you like with" Sherlock Holmes. But this kind of legal wrangling and greed represents a last gasp for relevance and income for individuals who aren't even direct descendants. Surely they have other financial interests to keep them flush.<br />
<br />
It's just sad to see that because of the overgenerous laws of the United States, the legal profession sees more of a payday than the Conan Doyle family.<br />
<div>
<br />
What do you think of the latest kerfuffle? Perhaps we should change the hashtag to #FreeMrHolmes...<br />
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<i><br />
</i> <i>Image credit: Paxton Whitehead as Dr. Philip Barbay in <b>Back to School</b> (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPb8ZjebUP8" target="_blank">YouTube</a>)</i><br />
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<br /></div>

Conan Doyle Estate Sues Mr. Holmes

"the relentless threat" [VALL] Well, they're at it again. The Conan Doyle Estate, Ltd. - that business entity that take...

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by Scott Monty

Born on This Day: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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"he had created a local hero" [VALL]</h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLkmSQd1oNYUD9cyabBcagCac8wl_X9Vn3R-kyn43sRwOkSL2vcifnCUWQmLvCCzzaCXOACjdnNrFg4pgEyqBAkBGwYBT88o6GJUSHKdY14ws6fwztjndl_R6qYyi8e1ghfadGEbM2MxSv/s1600/Sir+Arthur+Conan+Doyle+plaque.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Edinburgh plaque in memory of Arthur Conan Doyle" border="0" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLkmSQd1oNYUD9cyabBcagCac8wl_X9Vn3R-kyn43sRwOkSL2vcifnCUWQmLvCCzzaCXOACjdnNrFg4pgEyqBAkBGwYBT88o6GJUSHKdY14ws6fwztjndl_R6qYyi8e1ghfadGEbM2MxSv/s640/Sir+Arthur+Conan+Doyle+plaque.jpg" title="Sir Arthur Conan Doyle plaque" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
On May 22, 1859, Arthur Igantius Conan Doyle was born to Charles and Mary (Foley) Doyle in Edinburgh, Scotland.<br />
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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was many things - a man of action who counted boxing, cricket, rugby and golf among his interests and one who pioneered the sport of downhill skiing. He was an explorer who sailed on <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose48" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">an Arctic whaling ship</a> and later on a cargo ship along the west coast of Africa. He was a war correspondent in Sudan, an army doctor in the Boer war and a front-line observer of World War I. And for 40 years, he was an ardent believer in spiritualism.<br />
<br />
But it is as a writer that Conan Doyle is best known. While he desperately wanted to be known for his historical novels such as <i>Sir Nigel</i> and <i>The White Company</i>, or even his Brigadier Gerard and Professor Challenger stories, his name is more closely connected with his most famous creation, Sherlock Holmes.<br />
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In <a href="https://youtu.be/4eq18U5btcg" target="_blank">this historic video</a> - and to our knowledge, the only existing footage of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle speaking - was shot three years before his death in 1930. Listen to what he has to say about the origins of Sherlock Holmes and more.<br />
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In honor of his birthday today (Sir Arthur would have been 156 years old), here are some useful links (but by no means comprehensive) to help you find out more about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:<br />
<ul>
<li>A listing of every entry on I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/search/label/Conan%20Doyle#.VV870vlViko" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">labeled "Conan Doyle"</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/sir-arthur-conan-doyle-is-born" target="_blank">May 22</a> from On This Day in History</li>
<li>A treasure trove of <a href="http://sherlockian.net/acd/index.html" target="_blank">Arthur Conan Doyle links on Sherlockian.net</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.acdfriends.org/" target="_blank">Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection</a>, Toronto Public Library</li>
<li><a href="http://www.the-conan-doyle-crowborough-establishment.com/" target="_blank">The Conan Doyle Crowborough Establishment</a></li>
</ul>
<br />
In terms of biographies, there are many, but more recent ones that we can highly recommend include:<br />
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<ul>
<li><i><a href="http://amzn.to/1LkDurq" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes: The Life and Times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle</a></i> by Andrew Lycett</li>
<li><i><a href="http://amzn.to/1HzkjfN" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle</a></i> by Daniel Stashower</li>
<li><i><a href="http://amzn.to/1AjEGuR" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters</a></i> edited by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<h4>
Bonus:</h4>
You can listen to our interview with Jon and Dan from <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose13" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Episode 13</a> when we discussed <i>Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters</i>.<br />
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<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/134345847&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe><br />
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<i>Image credit: <a href="https://flic.kr/p/paVG9B" target="_blank">Freddie Phillips (Flickr)</a></i><br />
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Born on This Day: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

"he had created a local hero" [VALL] On May 22, 1859, Arthur Igantius Conan Doyle was born to Charles and Mary (Foley) Doyle ...

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by Scott Monty

The Tangled Skeins of Sherlock Holmes: An Interview with David Marcum

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"another thread which I have extricated out of the tangled skein" [HOUN]</h4>
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<br />
There are good pastiche writers, there are great ones, and then there is David Marcum who ranks among the very best. His short story collections, <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1cPm6j4" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Papers of Sherlock Holmes</a></i> are some of the top selling Sherlock Holmes books, with good reason. His mysteries are complex, and his Holmes and Watson come straight out of the canon. Doyle would be proud to see his characters continuing on in Mr. Marcum's writing.  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to interview Mr. Marcum on his latest Holmes short story collection entitled <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1IQANil" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes:  Tangled Skeins</a></i>.  I contacted him via e-mail and asked about the book, his upcoming projects, and his view on nontraditional versions of Sherlock Holmes.</div>
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<b>IHOSE:  <o:p></o:p><i>Tangled Skeins</i> is an unusual title for a Sherlock Holmes book.  Where did it come from and what does it mean?</b></h4>
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<b>David Marcum:</b> The title for the new book, <i>Sherlock Holmes – Tangled Skeins</i>, is taken from the original title of <i>A Study in Scarlet, </i>which was first called <i>A Tangled Skein. </i>It also comes from a couple of quotes in that book, where Holmes states: <i>“</i><i><span lang="EN">There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it . . . ”</span></i><span lang="EN"> and also <i>“I have now in my hands . . . all the threads which have formed such a tangle.”</i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">The phrase “tangled skein” is never used in <i>A Study in Scarlet</i>, but it has come to be somewhat associated with Holmes, much like the more well-known but never-actually-uttered-in-The-Canon phrase <i>“Elementary, my dear Watson.” </i>There have been a couple of other Sherlockian books with this phrase in their title, including <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1HiQhr3" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Tangled Skein</a>, </i>David Stuart Davies’ Holmes-versus-Dracula pastiche. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">My use of the phrase in the title comes from my long-held belief that Holmes was much busier than it has always appeared, and that many of his cases overlapped one another. For many years, I’ve kept a chronology of Holmes and Watson’s lives, based on both the Canon and the thousands of pastiches I’ve collected and read since I was a kid in the mid-1970’s. (For an extensive explanation of this chronology, see <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/7555285-a-view-into-the-great-watsonian-oversoul-part-two-of-the-interview-with" target="_blank">one of my previous interviews by Derrick here</a>.)</span></div>
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<span lang="EN">By breaking down all of these thousands of pastiches into a day-by-day chronology, one can see that Holmes’s cases often overlapped each other. In this new book, Watson explains that when he assembled different stories for publication over the years, he had to pull out individual threads from the tangled skein of these intertwined cases, so that each story would appear to stand alone, rather than confuse the issue by referring to so many other simultaneous adventures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">In my first book, <i>The Papers of Sherlock Holmes,</i> there is a story called “The Haunting of Sutton House,” which tells of two nearly-simultaneous but unconnected cases. As I was “editing” Watson’s notes for this new volume, it occurred to me that every one of these tales was in some way related to another adventure, either because they were happening at the same time, or they were related to a past case. My initial title for the book was the prosaic <i>Sherlock Holmes: The Gower Street Murder and Other Stories. </i>Almost at the last minute, just before time to submit the whole thing to the publisher, I was walking in a local park, and the current title popped into my head. It seemed to encompass the idea of all of these interrelated cases. When I got back home, I ran it by my wife and son, and they liked it much better, and so it became <i>Sherlock Holmes: Tangled Skeins.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8LA4pyoRaR7TL947Lo2eQXBRdh9XFkW9BpxFNl6CLQahX5Ehxbe_2A0hgi8f1XFY3WOZBwQYrmSteNxzYNoXcCQEO1LtC0MtAIsMzA9MHcZlLzB7aPKxlrR4DF4nJzU_5x_XFFtQnwNF5/s1600/Tangled+Skeins+-+David+Marcum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Sherlock Holmes - Tangled Skeins" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8LA4pyoRaR7TL947Lo2eQXBRdh9XFkW9BpxFNl6CLQahX5Ehxbe_2A0hgi8f1XFY3WOZBwQYrmSteNxzYNoXcCQEO1LtC0MtAIsMzA9MHcZlLzB7aPKxlrR4DF4nJzU_5x_XFFtQnwNF5/s640/Tangled+Skeins+-+David+Marcum.jpg" title="David Marcum's Sherlock Holmes - Tangled Skeins" width="426" /></a></div>
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<b>IHOSE:  Your book has a great three part introduction about your time in England before writing, or perhaps I should say editing, this book.  My favorite part of the introduction was about your persuasion towards wearing deerstalker hats. What made you decide to write a personal and witty introduction about yourself?  Why didn't you just dive in with your stories?</b></h4>
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<b>DM:</b> The introduction worked backwards from the introductions to the three <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1eh3UQu" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes in Montague Street</a> </i>books, published in 2014. In those books, I explained how I was approached in London by someone who saw me wearing a deerstalker, during my Holmes Pilgrimage in September 2013, and given the Watsonian manuscripts that eventually led to those books. I’ve always loved reading those introductions in different pastiches that relate how Watson’s various “lost” stories have been discovered, right back to when I first read Nicholas Meyer’s <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1cPmoq8" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Seven-Per-Cent Solution</a></i> and <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1eh4ldF" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The West End Horror</a> </i>in the 1970’s.</div>
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By elaborating on the introduction from the <i>Montague Street </i>books, and explaining in greater depth how I came across this additional batch of Watson’s notebooks, I was able to work in more details about my trip to England, where I traveled in order to walk in Holmes and Watson’s footsteps. It was a nearly religious experience for me. One important aspect of that trip was that my only companion was my deerstalker, as my wife and son stayed at home in Tennessee. As I explain in the book, I’ve been wearing deerstalkers as my only hat, from fall to spring every year, since I was nineteen years old. <o:p></o:p></div>
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When I went to England and Scotland in 2013, I wore it literally everywhere to every one of the countless Holmes sites that I was able to track down, based on hundreds of hours of research using over a dozen Holmes travel books in my collection. (As I relate in the book’s introduction, if it wasn’t Holmes-related, I pretty-much didn’t do it. For example, I didn’t go on the London Eye, as it has nothing to do with Holmes, but I did visit The Tower – not because of its historic or tourist importance, but because it’s been so important in a great number of really good pastiches.) I wouldn’t have considered a trip to the Holmesland without taking and wearing my deerstalker to every single place.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I’d considered writing an essay about wearing the deerstalker for a long time, and also composing one about my Holmes journey. This introduction seemed like a good way to lead from my long-standing deerstalker use to my trip, and from that to how I obtained the stories.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>IHOSE:  One of your stories, "The Matter of Boz's Last Letter," is a complex mystery involving the possible ending to Dickens's <i>The Mystery of Edwin Drood</i>.  Was this story inspired by Dickens who is known for his intricate plots?</b></h4>
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<b>DM: </b>Actually, I’m a casual fan of Dickens, although it would seem as if I have a greater-than-casual interest in his works, based on the fact that my novel <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1eh4ptQ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes and A Quantity of Debt</a></i> (2013) has such a Dickensian influence, and now he’s mentioned in this story too. When I sit down, I write very organically, without a solid plot in mind. I just listen to Holmes and Watson and transcribe what happens – it allows for things to occur that I couldn’t plan. All I knew when this story started was that Holmes and Watson were visited by an auctioneer who needed help recovering a stolen item. I found out as Holmes and Watson did what the item was. Later, when Holmes was facing the tedious business of interviewing numerous auction house employees, he and I were both very relieved when a note arrived from Mycroft, short-circuiting the process, and necessitating a visit to the Diogenes Club, where the whole matter turned out to be something of a Victorian wiki-leak. In the end, the Dickens letter was simply a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin" target="_blank">MacGuffin</a>.</div>
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<b>IHOSE:  Two of your stories involve the extended family of Holmes characters.  We meet the sister of Mrs. Hudson and the mother of Wiggins, the Baker Street Irregular.  How did you come about creating these new Holmes characters?  </b></h4>
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<b>DM: </b>Again, this all came about from simply dictating the conversations that I overhear when I let the characters talk. In the case of meeting Mrs. Hudson’s sister, Holmes and Watson encounter her on a train, and Holmes deduces that she is on her way to visit him, and not her sister, in Baker Street. I was as surprised as Watson when Holmes pointed out all of the clues that indicated that she was our favorite landlady’s sister. In the tale about Wiggins’s mother, I knew that I wanted to tell a story about why there are so many different Wiggins boys (and sometimes girls) in all the different pastiches that occur over several decades, and these children/teens never seem to age. I knew why I thought this was the case – there was obviously a whole family of them who had sworn service to Holmes for some reason. What could make them do that? When the story begins, Watson meets a grown Wiggins while both are sheltering in a doorway from a sudden rainstorm. (Coincidentally, it is the very same door where I hid from the rain one day during some of my London explorations.) As the story progresses, we learn what happened to Mrs. Wiggins over twenty years before, how a much-younger Holmes saved her, and why the family is so grateful.</div>
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<b>IHOSE:  You have stated repeatedly that you prefer traditional Sherlock Holmes stories and don't like modernizations or Holmes in alternative histories.  Are there any non-traditional Sherlock Holmes stories that you enjoy, or do you feel Holmes stories only work when they are traditional?  </b></h4>
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<b>DM:</b> My preference for traditional Classic Holmes goes back to the fact that he is the person that I encountered when I first started reading the Canon in 1975, when I was ten years old. Not long after, my parents gave me Baring-Gould’s Holmes biography, <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1HvMpbA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street</a>. </i>I don’t agree with everything in that book, but it’s a great jumping-off place. One aspect of the book was that it taught me about "playing The Game<i>,</i>" where Holmes and Watson are treated as actual people who historically lived during the Victorian and Edwardian ages. It was Dorothy L. Sayers who rightly said that The Game “<span lang="EN">must be played as solemnly as a county cricket match at Lord's.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN">When I read a few years ago that BBC Wales was going to produce a new series of Holmes stories for television, with the actors younger and more age-appropriate than what has sometimes been portrayed in films, I was very excited. But then I was saddened to hear that the stories were going to be updated to the modern world. At that point, to me, they were no longer about Holmes and Watson, the historical figures. Rather they were stories about similar-behaving – but very different nonetheless – characters who just happened to have the same names.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">There have been other modernized Holmes tales, where the character has the same name and skills and actions, but he isn’t Holmes in those cases either. There were a couple of television films in the 1980’s where a cryogenically frozen Holmes was thawed out in modern times with a modern-day Watson. Then there was the cartoon series <i>Sherlock Holmes in the 22<sup>nd</sup> Century. </i>A series of Star Trek fan-fictions, published as <i>Holmes of the Federation</i>, relates investigations by Holmes and Watson clones in the days of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock. Even <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2012/09/in-animated-conversation-redh_11.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Daffy Duck makes a pretty good Holmes</a> in “Deduce, You Say,” facing The Shropshire Slasher. All of them try to accurately portray a Holmes-like character, but none of them <i>is</i> Holmes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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To me, removing Holmes and Watson from the Victorian and Edwardian eras means that they’re not Holmes and Watson anymore. As I’ve said to a few folks, it’s like if <span class="il"><i>Star</i></span><i> <span class="il">Wars</span></i> were reimagined and set in the Old West. Consider: Luke Skywalker, living in a dusty desert town, meets a crazy old prospector/ex-soldier named Ben Kenobi. They find out about a girl that needs to be rescued, and they hire a roguish wagon driver, Hans, and his big hairy unintelligible tobacco-chewing side-kick (named Chew ‘Bac’er) to take them somewhere. Then there is some big-shot with a pun-like name similar to Darth Vader who has built a Death Wagon, and so on. The character names are the same or similar, and there are all sorts of winks and nods to the original fans, showing that the creators are very familiar with the original material, but it’s just not <span class="il"><i>Star</i></span><i> <span class="il">Wars</span> </i>anymore.<span lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">Some might remind me that Basil Rathbone portrayed Holmes in a modern setting in twelve of his fourteen films – all of the ones that he made for Universal. It’s my belief that the first three Universal films are actually <a href="http://www.solarpons.com/" target="_blank">Solar Pons</a> cases. (As I’ve said elsewhere, if you don’t know who Solar Pons is, find him and read about him. I expounded on this idea in a <i><a href="http://bakerstreetjournal.com/" target="_blank">Baker Street Journal</a></i> essay, “Basil Rathbone’s Solar Pons Films.”) The other nine universal stories, also set in contemporary 1940s times, could have all been cases taken from Watson’s notes, originally set around the time of World War I, and simply updated by filmmakers during World War II. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">Mr. Benedict Cumberbatch is excellent to watch as someone portraying Sherlockian traits. (So was Hugh Laurie as Dr. House, for that matter.) Cumberbatch was excellent when he portrayed the true Victorian Holmes in a series of four audio readings on CD, <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1LdRHq8" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Rediscovered Railway Mysteries</a>. </i>(This set is about to be reissued.) I’ve always wished to see him play the true Holmes on film, and it looks like – if all reports are accurate – that we’ll finally have a chance later this year when a stand-alone episode will show Cumberbatch and Freeman’s Holmes and Watson in the correct time period, where it’s always 1895, or at least a decade or so on either side of that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">Don’t get me wrong – I do enjoy watching the Cumberbatch <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1Gr6mPe" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sherlock</a></i> episodes that have come out so far. In fact, I’ve watched them multiple times. My 23-year-old son really enjoys them. They are extremely well done, and I’m glad that they’ve helped to open up and fuel the fires of the latest Holmes Golden Age. But to me, they’re just not about the <i>true</i> Holmes. Luckily, new pastiches and films about the Great Detective that was born in 1854 are always appearing for Holmes addicts like me.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>IHOSE:  What are your current projects?</b></h4>
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<b>DM:</b> The big thing on my plate right now is assembling and editing a massive anthology of new traditional Holmes stories, to be published in the fall of 2015 by <a href="http://www.mxpublishing.com/category/Sherlock+Holmes+Books" target="_blank">MX Publishing</a>. It’s going to be a two-volume hardcover set, containing approximately 60 new full-length adventures. All royalties will go to benefit the <a href="http://www.saveundershaw.com/" target="_blank">Undershaw Preservation Trust</a>, which, as many people know, was set up to protect one of Doyle’s homes, where he was living when he wrote <i>The Hound</i> and <i>The Return.</i></div>
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In late January, I literally woke up early one morning dreaming about this book. If I’d rolled over and gone back to bed, I would have forgotten about it. But I went ahead and got up, started making a wish list of authors that I wanted to participate, and emailed Steve Emecz to see what he thought. He was very positive, so I started sending invitations to authors. Initially it was going to be a paperback book, with one or two dozen stories. As it escalated, and the scope of the project grew, so did the book’s size. When it became too big, and seemed as if it were getting so fat that it might split in half, Steve upgraded it to two volumes. About 25% of the authors are from MX, and the others are a mixture who are with other publishers, along with a few first-timers as well. We currently have authors, many well-known, from the U.S., Canada, all over Great Britain, New Zealand, and India. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I think that this will possibly be the biggest collection of new Holmes stories that has been published as part of one collection. I’m so fortunate to be able to work on this. I’ve become acquainted with some really great people along the way, and the stories that I’ve received so far are all outstanding additions to the overall Holmes Tapestry.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>IHOSE:  Any last thoughts?</b></h4>
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<b>DM:</b> I want to thank Derrick for arranging this interview. I always appreciate the opportunity to ramble on about Mr. Holmes. As I mentioned, we’re living in the latest Holmes Golden Age, and this means that there are so many ways to appreciate The Master, whether it’s the traditional way that I favor, or approaching it from a more modern direction. I can’t wait to see what happens next!</div>
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More interviews with David Marcum can be found <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/7432054-author-interview-with-david-marcum-author-of-the-papers-of-sherlock-hol" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/7555285-a-view-into-the-great-watsonian-oversoul-part-two-of-the-interview-with" target="_blank">here</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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David welcomes comments or questions, and can be reached at:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="mailto:thepapersofsherlockholmes@gmail.com">thepapersofsherlockholmes@gmail.com</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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The Tangled Skeins of Sherlock Holmes: An Interview with David Marcum

"another thread which I have extricated out of the tangled skein" [HOUN] There are good pastiche writers, there are great...

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by Belanger Books

Victoria Day

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"What a queen she...made!" [SCAN]</h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8zRd_Ifv2OOUdDlV8fJzdxGvUs0t0_3TCASSPd0nmvSJ-t9sqs1ELyQ8eSMRwYIPY0raDjCb10HyUrjPInkYLkjG6HlONbH2LJ3xbhwoMne1OJUVMnCIA0VOzwRwBV_C6H-hglQoIEvcL/s1600/Happy+Victoria+Day+-+a+day+of+loafing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Victoria Day - a day of loafing for Canadians" border="0" height="528" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8zRd_Ifv2OOUdDlV8fJzdxGvUs0t0_3TCASSPd0nmvSJ-t9sqs1ELyQ8eSMRwYIPY0raDjCb10HyUrjPInkYLkjG6HlONbH2LJ3xbhwoMne1OJUVMnCIA0VOzwRwBV_C6H-hglQoIEvcL/s640/Happy+Victoria+Day+-+a+day+of+loafing.jpg" title="Happy Victoria Day" width="640" /></a></div>
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Today -- Monday, May 18 -- is Victoria Day in most of Canada, an occasion that patriotic citizens celebrate by shooting the initials "VR" into the sitting-room wall.<br />
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Well, maybe not quite that. In my experience, people who own cottages mark the Victoria Day long weekend by "opening up" the cottage for the summer season, and those who don't have cottages mark the day by cleaning the spiders out of the barbecue and stocking up on beer. In fact the event is often informally called "the May two-four weekend", referring both to its traditional date, May 24, and the standard size of a carton of beer, 24 bottles and known as a two-four.<br />
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The holiday honors Queen Victoria, who was born May 24, 1819, and reigned from 1837 to her death in 1901. The queen was clearly important to Sherlock Holmes, and not only because of the famous "VR" which Watson mentions with disapproval in "The Musgrave Ritual". (And wouldn't we like to know what Mrs. Hudson thought about that exercise in marksmanship!) <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh31H-eqOF2VRymJsC_XxWF8SnoaVRylcKovyfZMGf0piJgdsJFRKfW3Ttlow7exIqYUquKMtPQNnSPCwGzHqiUP7pNQnjjZewAupDJfaeKjWLbOBLYmfqZYw88llxzKAPszBZqdEceinzu/s1600/VR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh31H-eqOF2VRymJsC_XxWF8SnoaVRylcKovyfZMGf0piJgdsJFRKfW3Ttlow7exIqYUquKMtPQNnSPCwGzHqiUP7pNQnjjZewAupDJfaeKjWLbOBLYmfqZYw88llxzKAPszBZqdEceinzu/s400/VR.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Holmes had a closer brush with the queen at the end of "The Bruce-Partington Plans": we are told that he "spent a day at Windsor, whence he returned with a remarkably fine emerald tie-pin. When I asked him if he had bought it, he answered that it was a present from a certain gracious lady." Windsor Castle, west of London, was Victoria's favorite residence in her later years, and politicians as well as consulting detectives were obliged to go there if the Queen had business with them.<br />
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As happens so often in the stories, Holmes foreshadows that ending by something he says earlier in the same tale: "All the queen's horses and all the queen's men cannot avail in this matter." References to the queen (and the Court of Queen's Bench, and arrest "in the queen's name") are a canonical commonplace.<br />
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But Victoria was, if anything, more important to Canada than to Britain, for in the mother country she counts as merely one in a thousand-year sequence of monarchs. Canada, on the other hand, was essentially built during Victoria's reign, and is the only country where her birthday has become a public holiday. In the very year she came to the throne, the Rebellion of 1837 in what is now Ontario led to concessions in the direction of democratic government. (Quebec had a similar rebellion the following year.) A national government for Canada was organized thirty years later, as Victoria signed the British North America Act and personally selected a tiny remote lumber town to be the capital city, now called Ottawa. The country has not one but two major cities named for the queen, Victoria (in British Columbia) and Regina (in Saskatchewan). VR, remember!<br />
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As a result, Victoria's birthday was a holiday from the country's earliest years. My mother can remember a rhyme that children still chanted in the 1920s:<br />
     Twenty-fourth of May,<br />
     The queen's birthday!<br />
     If you don't give us a holiday<br />
     We'll all run away!<br />
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The "Queen's Birthday" was renamed Empire Day after Victoria's death, and more recently it became Victoria Day. It's now celebrated on May 24 only if that day falls on a Monday; otherwise it falls on the Monday just prior.<br />
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Until about twenty years ago, it was traditional to set off fireworks on Victoria Day, but that part of the celebration has now, under the influence of Independence Day south of the international border, been shifted to Canada Day on July 1. There are, really, no civic events associated with Victoria Day, just the cottage-opening and beer-drinking . . . and, perhaps, here and there, a little reading of Sherlock Holmes.<br />
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Happy loafing!<br />
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<i>Image credit: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen's_Official_Birthday#/media/File:Bread_ticket_for_royal_birthday_1859_Toronto_Canada.jpg" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a></i><br />
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Victoria Day

"What a queen she...made!" [SCAN] Today -- Monday, May 18 -- is Victoria Day in most of Canada, an occasion that patriotic ...

+ Read more »

by Chris Redmond

The 1916 William Gillette "Sherlock Holmes" Is Available for Order on Blu-ray / DVD

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"the torture of anticipation" [3GAB]</h4>
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Last October, we helped break the news that the 1916 film <i>Sherlock Holmes</i> starring William Gillette <a href="http://ihose.co/1916film" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">had been discovered</a>. The film underwent restoration by the Cinémathèque Française and the San Francisco Silent Film Festival before being screened in Paris on January 31, 2015. The film is set for its American screening on May 31, 2015 at the <a href="http://silentfilm.org/" target="_blank">San Francisco Silent Film Festival</a> (tickets may still be available!).<br />
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Today, we received word that <a href="http://amzn.to/1Fpo72u" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the film is now available for pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD</a>.</h4>
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<a href="http://amzn.to/1Fe0SFs" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img alt="Sherlock Holmes (1916) starring William Gillette on Blu-ray" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3oBfEmyhsq5aVh_bH3rCBs3NgkARkbnVmGv7adPO-7Kv5yEqABQdQP8nu9kBXBs4ZAQ1XH-xwsU19lk8ZFA_HDdHRFhQqfhAviA3VU0Zu_YvE7KGIg2rauzk0sb6vAShM6-KfiDteQdIU/s320/Gillette+Sherlock+Holmes+1916+Blu-ray.jpg" title="Sherlock Holmes (1916) starring William Gillette" width="258" /></a></div>
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<b>From the description on Amazon:</b><br />
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In commemoration of the 99th anniversary of the film's original release, Flicker Alley along with the San Francisco Silent Film Festival and la Cinémathèque française is proud to present the Blu-ray/DVD premiere of one of the Holy Grails of lost films: William Gillette's <i><b>Sherlock Holmes</b></i>.<br />
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Long considered lost until a complete dupe negative was identified in the vaults of la Cinémathèque française last year, this William Gillette film is a vital missing link in the history of Sherlock Holmes on screen. By the time it was produced at Essanay Studios in 1916, Gillette had been established as the world's foremost interpreter of Holmes on stage having played him approximately 1,300 times since his 1899 debut. This newly-restored edition, thanks to the monumental efforts of both the San Francisco Silent Film Festival and la Cinémathèque française, represents the sole surviving appearance of Gillette's Holmes on film. Presented with optional French and English intertitles and an original score composed and performed by Neil Brand, Guenter Buchwald, and Frank Bockius, Flicker Alley is honored to bring <b><i>Sherlock Holmes</i></b> onto <u>Blu-ray and DVD</u> for the first time ever.<br />
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The film faithfully retains the play's famous set pieces: Holmes's encounter with Professor Moriarty, his daring escape from the Stepney Gas Chamber, and the tour-de-force deductions. It also illustrates how Gillette, who wrote the adaptation himself, wove bits from Conan Doyle's stories ranging from "A Scandal in Bohemia" to "The Final Problem," into an original, innovative mystery play.<br />
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Film restorer Robert Byrne says, </div>
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"It's an amazing privilege to work with these reels that have been lost for generations. William Gillette's <b><i>Sherlock Holmes</i></b> has ranked among the Holy Grails of lost film and my first glimpse of the footage confirms Gillette's magnetism. Audiences are going to be blown away when they see the original Sherlock Holmes on screen for the first time."</blockquote>
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<b>Bonus Materials Include: </b><br />
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<li><i>Sherlock Holmes Baffled</i> (1900): Courtesy of the Library of Congress and presented in HD, this is the earliest known film to feature the character of Sherlock Holmes. </li>
<li><i>A Canine Sherlock</i> (1912): From the EYE Film Institute, the film stars Spot the Dog as the titular character. </li>
<li><i>Più forte che Sherlock Holmes</i> (1913): Also from the EYE Film Institute, this entertaining Italian trick-film owes as much to Méliès as it does Doyle. </li>
<li>HD transfers from the Fox Movietone Collection: Interview with Arthur Conan Doyle and outtakes from a 1930 broadcast with William Gillette showing off his amateur railroad (University of South Carolina). </li>
<li>A PDF manuscript of the 1899 <i>Sherlock Holmes</i> play by William Gillette. </li>
<li>A PDF of the original contract between William Gillette and the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company. </li>
<li>A booklet featuring images from the film and information about the restoration project.</li>
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This film is not to be missed and is a must for every Sherlockian's video library.<br />
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What are you waiting for? <a href="http://amzn.to/1Fe0SFs" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pre-order your copy from Amazon today</a>. Available now for pre-oder, with release on October 20, 2015.<br />
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<i><b>A note:</b> if you order through the links we provide, it helps to support the operations of I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere.</i><br />
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The 1916 William Gillette "Sherlock Holmes" Is Available for Order on Blu-ray / DVD

"the torture of anticipation" [3GAB] Last October, we helped break the news that the 1916 film Sherlock Holmes starring Will...

+ Read more »

by Scott Monty

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...

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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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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguJbf3oXjPcd26wmm23KFVa9SOdgN0hpwojC7IZeF787ZHYYkJgmRPLr0Phaxq-uYlJUJOhjrttWg_fJqKsr2VbYgmJJae11SHqsQdxUxoucygFrL08OZOX-BNUG5QTHPLgKk7-P_tMhJR/s1600/Hugh+Ashton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Hugh Ashton writes about Sherlock Holmes in various formats" border="0" height="498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguJbf3oXjPcd26wmm23KFVa9SOdgN0hpwojC7IZeF787ZHYYkJgmRPLr0Phaxq-uYlJUJOhjrttWg_fJqKsr2VbYgmJJae11SHqsQdxUxoucygFrL08OZOX-BNUG5QTHPLgKk7-P_tMhJR/s640/Hugh+Ashton.jpg" title="Author Hugh Ashton" width="640" /></a></div>
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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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<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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<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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<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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<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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<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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