Bartitsu Talk at The National Liberal Club

Last night the members of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London gathered at the National Liberal Club.

The National Liberal Club on the Embankment, London

The carpet was laid out for us or at least that is what I'm telling myself.


For some there was dinner but for all there was a talk on the martial art of Bartitsu which is widely believed to be the art Arthur Conan Doyle referred to as Baritsu. This, of course, was the system by which Sherlock Holmes sent Moriarty over the Reichenbach Falls.


The battle at Reichenbach (left) James Marwood (right)

The speaker was James Marwood who is an authority on Bartitsu and many other martial arts. Over the course of an hour he explained the origins of the art via a slideshow and practical demonstrations with his assistant George.

The talk and the demonstrations

The demonstrations involved fighting with sticks and swords as well as the fists. Mr Marwood spoke about the fighting as shown by Jeremy Brett (his favourite Holmes hear hear) and Robert Downey Junior and stated that Brett's was the more accurate.

Mr Marwood can be contacted via Twitter under the name @marwoodchap if you are interested in the subject or would like to know where you can learn the art devised by  E. W. Barton-Wright.

 E. W. Barton-Wright (centre) and various moves from Bartitsu

The talk concluded with Mr Marwood giving us a present. This took the form of a demonstration of how to remove an unpleasant man from a room. I wish I'd had my camera ready at the time but rest assured I've memorised it and will use it in the future if necessary.

I got to meet a Twitter buddy for the first time in the person of @belpita and here is the mandatory silly photo of her and Baker Street Babe @Ardyforshort.



Eliminate the Impossible is available from all good bookstores, in many formats worldwide including Amazon USA, Barnes and Noble, Amazon UK, Waterstones UK, Amazon Kindle, Kobo, Nook and iBooks for the iPad/iPhone.

For more information on Arthur Conan Doyle and his time at Undershaw please refer to my book, An Entirely New Country which is available through all good bookstores including Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Classic Specialities, and in all electronic formats including iTunes, Kobo, Nook and Kindle .