New book

Hi all.

I've started work on a new book. I'm not giving any details yet but it will mark a shift away from Arthur Conan Doyle and back towards Sherlock Holmes.

Wish me luck.

Ross K Reviews "A Chronology of the Life Of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle"

The Norwood Builder - Will Analysis if the story was set today

The Norwood Builder contains one of my favourite pieces of Holmesian deduction - the part where Holmes explains to Lestrade how a document was written on a train.

Given the state of the UK railways these days I thought I'd redraft the passage to reflect the modern train travel experience:

Holmes had picked up the pages which formed the rough draft of the will, and was looking at them with the keenest interest upon his face.

"There are some points about that document, Lestrade, are there not?" said he, pushing them over.

The official looked at them with a puzzled expression.

"I can read the first few lines and these in the middle of the second page, and one or two at the end. Those are as clear as print," said he, "but the writing in between is very bad, and there are three places where I cannot read it at all."

"What do you make of that?" said Holmes.

"Well, what do YOU make of it?"

"That it was written in a train. The good writing represents stations where he sat as the announcer kept changing which platform the train would be arriving at, the bad writing represents movement where he was knocked by the man next to him fiddling with his iPod, and the very bad writing represents being knocked by people with rucksacks.

“A scientific expert would pronounce at once that this was drawn up on a suburban line, since nowhere save in the immediate vicinity of a great city could there be so quick

a succession of rucksacks and platform alterations. Granting that his whole journey was

occupied in drawing up the will, then the train was an express, only stopping once between Norwood and London Bridge."

Sherlockian or Holmesian - What do these terms mean now?

There was a time when these terms were readily understood. Their scope was nicely defined. Essentially both were terms for a person well versed in the world of Sherlock Holmes. This world was generally understood to comprise the canon of stories, television adaptations, movie outings, plays, scholarly writings and, to a certain extent, pastiche efforts.

A learned journal

The more serious members of these ranks were also known to be members of related societies and, perhaps, contributed scholarly articles to learned society journals.

The principal difference between the two terms was that Holmesian was decidedly British (and perhaps formal) and Sherlockian was used across the pond.

In the latter stages of the 20th century the term Sherlockian began to be used more and more by British devotees to the extent where the two became interchangeable. It was, however, generally the case that the users of the American designation tended to be younger than the adherents of the British one.

Since the BBC's Sherlock has taken hold, the term Sherlockian has been appropriated in a way that Holmesian has not. Social media is full of people who describe themselves as Sherlockian. However, a significant number (not all) of these will have done little more than watched screen adaptations. In the UK at least, Sherlockian has effectively become a term for a fan of the BBC's series (and possibly the recent RDJ films) and Holmesian remains largely the term for the more scholarly devotee.

Given that usage is the ultimate arbiter, it seems that these two terms, which were once separated by geography rather than scope, are now effectively separated (in the UK at least) by scope rather than geography.

Curious...

Haslemere Festival

Well yesterday saw my appearance at the Haslemere Festival. My wife and I arrived very early and had a wander round Haslemere Museum and looked at their Conan Doyle exhibition which was very good.

We then made our way to Haslemere Hall where I was to introduce a screening of Hammer's Hound of the Baskervilles. At this point I became truly scared as I don't make a habit of public speaking.

We checked my slide show, ran through a few points and then, just for the exercise, we went back to the museum for a buffet lunch. It was there that I met those who had already given their talks. These lucky individuals were Andrew Lycett and Andrew Lane.

Yes I'm terrified

At 2pm I made my way onto the stage following a lovely introduction from Roger Johnson.

Following a talk of about 20 minutes I was relieved to leave the stage for the film screening. There was laughter in all the wrong places (which was quite funny). At its conclusion we drew a raffle. The prizes were a number of books from my publisher MX Publishing. These included my book An Entirely New Country which you can order via this page.

Roger Johnson, yours truly and organiser Jeannette Hatcher drawing the raffle

SHSL Boat Trip - Following the Aurora

Members gathered today at Temple Pier to follow the river route taken by Sherlock Holmes in pursuit of the Aurora in The Sign of Four.

The troops gather

Catherine Cooke

David Jones, Ashley Mayo

Yours truly

Undershaw Latest - Fossway Appeal

To recap. On May 23rd the Judicial Review into the decision by Waverley Borough Council to grant Fossway planning permission to redevelop Undershaw was heard at the High Court. One week later it was revealed that the planning permission had been overturned. A period of one week was allowed for an appeal.

The deadline came and went without news. Later it emerged that Waverley Borough Council had elected not to appeal. However it has emerged today that Fossway, the owners of Undershaw, have decided to appeal against the decision.

However, all is not lost. Although they have requested an appeal there is no guarantee that it will be heard. Even if an appeal is heard there is no guarantee that the decision will be any different.

So don't fret just yet.

Undershaw Appeal Deadline

Well what are we to make of the silence? Yesterday was the deadline for Waverley Borough Council to appeal against the High Court decision to quash their planning permission for Undershaw. Is no news good news? Or is it the case that we just don't know the decision yet because it's sitting with someone who is yet to release it?

Frustrating doesn't even begin to cover it.