THE NEWSLETTER OF THE SHERLOCK HOLMES SOCIETY OF LONDON Jean Upton, Mole End, 41 Sandford Road, Chelmsford CM2 6DE e-mail: [email protected] No. 408 February 2021 Please keep visiting our website, which is being updated www.acdfriends.org and join up. Minimum membership frequently with news, important information and many items remains at $35, and you can make an additional donation of interest: www.sherlock-holmes.org.uk . which enables the purchase of exceptional items to add to the Collection. John Morewood, who has been co-ordinating our online Gazetteer, shares this update: “In January we made available The UK now has another Scion Society recognised by the on our website the second release of the Sherlock Holmes Baker Street Irregulars and certified by Wiggins. The Gazetteer which shows suggested locations for places Twisted Lips originated at an informal dinner in New York featured in the stories. 50% of the stories have now been on 10th January 2009, involving SHSL members who were covered. The plan is to finish the project by the end of 2021. attending the BSI weekend. Its participants continue to meet The stories in the new release are: Novel: The Valley of Fear. in London as a prelude to our Society’s annual dinner. Short Stories: Charles Augustus Milverton ; Lady Frances Jonathan Hopson says: “I wonder if members might be Carfax ; A Scandal in Bohemia ; The Abbey Grange ; The Blue interested in this funding campaign to secure the future of Carbuncle ; The Cardboard Box ; A Case of Identity ; The Gladstone's Library , which hosted the Society weekend in Dying Detective ; The Greek Interpreter ; The Illustrious 2013.” If you’d like to help, go to Client ; The Solitary Cyclist ; The Speckled Band ; The Three https://www.gladstoneslibrary.org/covid-recovery-fund Students and The Veiled Lodger . A reminder that our friends in the Reichenbach Irregulars If you missed the live entertainment presented at our recent are hosting a reading from Johanna Rieke’s novel Sherlock Louche Lockdown Libation , it is now available to view on Holmes and the Cornwall Affair on 25th of February at YouTube: 7:00pm GMT . If you would like to attend this online reading, The Blue Carbuncle - 40 minute adaptation performed over please contact [email protected] zoom. Jonathan Le Billon as Holmes and Dominic Brewer at Dr. Watson lead an international cast. Directed by Robert In the hope that lockdown will have eased by the summer, our Mammana, adaptation by Bonnie MacBird. annual Cricket Match has been set for 20th June. The https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-YNhJ_mR24 Sherlock Holmes Society of London will return to West The Modern Major Super Sleuth - 4 minute Gilbert and Wycombe where they will once again face the “Gold Bats” of Sullivan Holmes parody sung by Jonathan Le Billon and the P.G. Wodehouse Society, in a match played to the Dominic Brewer as Holmes and Watson, with Robert somewhat arcane Laws of 1895. You will find more details Mammana as Mycroft and an international chorus. on our website at www.sherlock-holmes.org.uk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9LWL2Z6LzU&t=29s The Beacon Society has produced its second issue of Nick Utechin has pointed out that Saturday 20th February Sherlock’s Spotlight , a gazette to be shared with children, 2021 marked an important anniversary in the history of our grandchildren, students, and anyone else who could share it Society. “It was exactly 70 years ago that four tired men and with younger Sherlockians. If you would like to be added to one tired woman crossed the Marylebone Road to raise a glass the emailing list to receive future issues, send an email to at the end of a hard day’s work on the 1951 Sherlock Holmes [email protected] Exhibition that was to open at Abbey House in Baker Street Our member, Dr Tom Ue , is associated with the Department three months later.” Those individuals were Tony and Freda of English at Dalhousie University. He is asking for assistance Howlett, Jack Thorne, Bill Williams and Colin Prestige. The in spreading word about a survey he is conducting about how result of this informal meeting was the formation of The Sherlock Holmes is taught to students. Tom says, “We are Sherlock Holmes Society of London, as we know it today. A really interested in the kinds of work that happen in commemorative booklet, This August And Scholarly Body: classrooms everywhere.” For more details, see The Society at 70 , will be published later this year. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MTQR2GQ?fbclid=IwAR Cliff Goldfarb sends the following: “This year is the 50th 22Rsv8pmmGJM7n88AqTxoNQPXVOtOj6MxbP4dOaes44 anniversary of the founding of the Arthur Conan Doyle FLIIYQH4JN3uwM Collection at the Toronto Public Library. We have reserved Bob Ellis spotted this article in the 4th February issue of The from September 24 – 26, 2021 for an event at the Collection. Guardian about Sherlockian pastiche, public reaction, and the Due to the uncertainty of the current situation, our plans associated lawsuits. cannot be finalised for some time. Updated information will https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/04/i-think-ive- be posted on our website at www.acdfriends.org/events.html written-more-sherlock-holmes-than-even-conan-doyle-the- and on our Facebook Group, Friends of the Arthur Conan ongoing-fight-to-reimagine-holmes Doyle Collection, Toronto.” If you’re not yet a Friend, go to Books of Interest Ron Weighell died on 24 December 2020, age 70. He wrote fiction in the supernatural, fantasy and horror genre and, for Was Sherlock Holmes an Elephant? by Paul Thomas Miller most of his life, lived and worked in the Portsmouth, UK, (Doyle’s Rotary Coffin, 56pp pbk £3.66) We could all use a area, with its close connection to Conan Doyle. His stories dose of silliness right about now. Was Sherlock Holmes an were included in over fifty anthologies and published in six elephant? Paul has collated evidence from the Canon and the volumes containing his own work exclusively. In 1992, the known facts about elephants to prove it. Northern Musgraves invited him to produce a story for their Obituaries "Aspects of Holmes" weekend. This led Ron to write more Holmes stories and his collection, The Irregular Casebook of It is with great sorrow that we must report the death of Sherlock Holmes, was published by Calabash Press in 2000. Michael Cox on 29th January, age 86. He had a long and It proved a popular work and was re-printed in 2018 by distinguished career in television production, joining the Zagava Press. ranks of Granada Television in 1960. He was assistant director for Coronation Street in 1965, moving up to Periodicals Received: producer for a couple of episodes in 1968. In 1972 he became The Baker Street Journal 2020 Christmas Annual: The 100- A Family at War producer of . It was in the early 1980s that Year Adventure of The Unique Hamlet (The Baker Street Michael began to campaign for Granada TV to produce high- Journal, P.O. Box 583, Zionsville, IN 46077-1934, USA; quality dramatisations of Sherlock Holmes. He joined our [email protected] ) Society in 1984, the year in which the internationally acclaimed The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series was The Bilge Pump – The Irregular Publication of the Crew of the launched. Michael’s influence was immense; from recruiting Barque Lone Star, February 2021 (Steve Mason; the principal actors to having the Baker Street set built, his [email protected] ) insistence on fidelity to Conan Doyle gave us the memorable Cameron Hollyer Memorial Lecture Series: In Sherlock’s and unmatchable series that is still enjoyed today. A great Footsteps: The Connection Between Sherlock Holmes and the supporter of the Society, he ensured we had representatives at Detection Club , April 2019 (Friends of the Arthur Conan the press previews of the Adventures and the Return . In 1987 Doyle Collection , Toronto Public Library, 789 Yonge Street, he arranged a private preview of The Sign of Four for the Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4W 2G8; www.acdfriends.org ) Society at the Granada Studios in Manchester, and was an Canadian Holmes , Winter 2020/2021 (The Journal of the excellent guest speaker at our 1989 Annual Dinner. Where Bootmakers of Toronto , Mark and JoAnn Alberstat, 46 possible, he attended Sherlockian events, including Kingston Crescent, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, B3A 2M2, Canada; conferences in the United States and our own Statue Festival [email protected] ) in London in 1999. At last year’s Annual General Meeting, the Chairman was pleased to announce that Michael had been Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections , December 2020 awarded Honorary Membership, our Society’s highest (Suite 111, Elmer L Andersen Library, University of Minnesota, 222 21st Avenue S., Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA) accolade. Always generous with his time, knowledge and expertise, we will miss his warmth and friendship. To read The Hansom Times , February 2021 (The official newsletter of more about his career go to: The Real Sherlock Holmes Walking Tour of Edinburgh , https://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2021/02/remembering- [email protected] ) granada-tvs-michael-cox.html The Illustrious Clients News, January 2021 (The Illustrious Christopher Plummer died on 5th February age 91. A Clients, Steven T Doyle, 9 Calumet Court, Zionsville, Indiana distinguished and versatile actor, he made his Broadway 46077, USA; [email protected]) debut in 1953. Honing his skills in Shakespearean Ironmongers Daily Echo and Franco-Midland Branches productions, he proceeded to appear in a diverse range of Advertiser , February 2021 (Société Sherlock Holmes de films. Perhaps inevitably, he is best remembered as Captain France, 15, rue Grande 03370 Saint-Sauvier, France; saint- Von Trapp in The Sound of Music . In 1977 he played [email protected] ) Sherlock Holmes in the made-for-TV Silver Blaze with The Magic Door , Fall/Winter 2020 (Friends of the Arthur Thorley Walters as Watson. He reprised his role as Holmes in Conan Doyle Collection , Toronto Public Library, 789 Yonge Murder By Decree (1979) with James Mason as Watson Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4W 2G8; (memorably plaintive about his squashed pea). In 2012, www.acdfriends.org ) Plummer became the oldest person ever to win an Oscar in an acting category. He was named best supporting actor for his Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press , January 2021 (Peter E performance as an elderly man who announces he is gay in Blau, 7103 Endicott Court, Bethesda, MD 20817-4401, USA; the film Beginners. One of his last roles was in the 2019 [email protected] ) comedy Knives Out , in which he played a mystery novelist Sherlock’s Spotlight , Winter 2020 (The Beacon Society; Steve who dies under curious circumstances. Mason, editor; [email protected] ) Warren Randall died on 26th January, age 85. He was editor The Stormy Petrels of BC: 2020 - A Year In Review (The of Prescott’s Press , published by The Three Garridebs of Stormy Petrels of British Columbia, Fran Martin; Westchester County. Warren was an enthusiastic and popular [email protected] ) participant in countless Sherlockian groups, nationally and The Whaling News , February 2021 (The Harpooners of the worldwide. The Bootmakers of Toronto gave him the honour Sea Unicorn, St. Charles, MO ; J Andrew Basford; of Master Bootmaker in 2001. He received his BSI investiture [email protected] ) of ‘Harold Stackhurst’ in 2007, and the ASH investiture of ‘An Impish Habit’ in 2008. Jean Upton