THE GAME IS AFOOT

STARTING TOMORROW ON THE ARCHIVE

THE SHERLOCK HOLMES WEEKEND

What is it about Sherlock Holmes? The most filmed fictional character in the world, what is it that gives the character, considered an annoyance by his own creator, such longevity?

Doyle wrote in the 1927 introduction to his final collection of Holmes short stories, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes – “I had full determined at the conclusion on The Memoirs to bring Holmes to an end. I felt that my literary energies should not be directed too much into one channel. Had Holmes never existed I could have not have done more, though he has stood in the way of recognition for my more serious work.”

Holmes’s fame is such that some people actually think he existed and when Doyle originally killed the character off, men walked around London in mourning and wearing black armbands. For many years the Abbey National Building Society, the business on the real 221B Baker Street, employed full time staff to answer all the letters they received addressed to Mr Sherlock Holmes. These days the letters, and they still come, least they do when there's no postal strike, go straight to the Sherlock Holmes museum.

“Conan Doyle had a singularly powerful romantic imagination. The truth is – and this is often obscured – that the Holmes stories are a great artistic triumph, of a very strange kind, achieved without the writer’s full engagement.” C. P. Snow 1974

Often the Holmes stories were written grudgingly, it shows in some of the stories, and tossed off in one draft. Mistakes were often made with continuity and reading some of the stories now, there are occasions when the writing is clumsy. However when you stumble upon one of the better stories in the canon, the old spark starts ignite and we are drawn into the world of Sherlock Holmes. And it is a world of afternoon tea, of impeccable manners, a time when brains would often triumph over brawn, good over evil and a razor thin drug addicted sleuth kept the streets safe.

Holmes has been reinvented by successive generations and this December sees the latest cinematic Holmes when Robert Downey plays the character for Guy Ritchie’s new adaptation of the classic character. Me, I’ll always have a soft spot for Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce but I would love for the new version to be success. Fingers crossed, I guess.

Over the next two days The Archive is firmly in the world of Sherlock Holmes. Coming up we’ve posts by Charles Ardai who tells us why Holmes is just right for Hardcase Crime, we talk to author and Holmes fan, Rafe McGregor, we also interview Avril Field Taylor author of Murder at Oakwood Grange, and Evan Lewis gives us his take on Sherlock Junior, the classic Buster Keaton movie which you can also watch in full here on the Archive. Add to that we’ve a potted review of every single story in the canon as well as a look at Holmes in the cinema and on TV. There’s also an article on how to emulate Sherlock Holmes, which will cover all the minute details for you including where to get the best drugs. And if that’s not enough then you’re sure to find more in our Sherlock Holmes weekend.