Roger Johnson 2l0 Rainsford Road Chelmsford The District Messenger Essex. CMl 2PD

THE NEWSLETTER OF THE SOCIETY OF LONDON no. 79 19th October 1988

Saturday 29th October is SHERLOCK HOLMES DAY at Marylebone Library, Marylebone Road, London NW1. For details, call Catherine Cooke on 01-798 1206, or see her at the Society's AGM. Chelmsford Central Library is nearing the end of a small scale crime fiction promo- tion (with no specific Holmesian content); Bedfordshire Libraries are doing something much bigger, under the title BOOKS, CROOKS, THRILLS & SPILLS, starting on the 26th Oct- ober. SHERLOCK HOLMES & HIS RIVALS, at 7.30 pm on Tuesday 8th November, is a talk by Bernard Davies and Peter Lovesey, chaired by John Kennedy Melling. Tickets £1. The event is at Putnoe Library, Library Walk, Bedford (phone 0234 53422). There are ten events altogether, in various libraries around the county.

Also on Saturday 29th October, at the Menuhin Room, Portsmouth Central Library between 10 am and 5 pm, is a seminar: PORTSMOUTH PROSE: A LITERARY HERITAGE. From 10.50 to 11.50 Geoffrey Stavert will talk about ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE & THE SHERLOCK HOLMES PHENOMENON. Charge for the day is £5 (£8 with lunch), payable to Portsmouth & South-East Hampshire Local Studies Committee. Applications to Mr A. King, Central Library, Guildhall Square, Portsmouth, Hants., by 24th October. Meanwhile, at Westham Adult Residential College, Barford, Warwick CV35 8DP, throughout the weekend of 9th to 11th December, there's a course on: SHERLOCK HOLMES & HIS LONDON by Peter Street. He's not a member of the Soc- iety, but a tutor for London University and Lecturer for various other bodies. The course costs £52 including full board & accommodation. Apply with full fee or £18 non-returnable deposit to Elisabeth Hammond, Principal, at the above address.

Classic Specialties (PO Box 19058, Cincinnati, Ohio 45219, USA) offer various items of Holmesian interest, including scarves, sweaters, tee-shirts & greetings cards. Eternity Comics (1355 Lawrence Drive, Apt. 212, Newbury Park, California 91320-1309, USA) remind me that they're not only reprinting the 1950s SHERLOCK HOLMES comic strip by Edith Meiser & Frank Giacoia, but also publishing a 4 part comic strip series SCARLET IN GASLIGHT, featuring Holmes & Count Dracula. All 4 parts are now in a single 120 page trade paper- back. Try your local comic specialist or Murder One in Denmark Street.

Look out for the short story magazine AD LIB (£l) at your newsagent. Issues 2 & 3 have instalments in a rather good series of Holmes pastiches by Clive Brooks. Subscriptions & back issues from Ad Lib Magazine, 110 Wilmcote House, Tysley Road, Somerstown, Portsmouth P05 4ND (add 30p post for 1 back issue. 40p for 2). Gravesend Books (Box 235, Pocono Pines, Pennsylvania 18350, USA) have a full new catalogue out with much Holmesiana.

New & recent books of interest: THE DETECTIVE DIRECTORY: A USER'S GUIDE TO THE 100 GREATEST SLEUTHS by Maxim Jakubowski (Xanadu, £10.95, due in January); JACK THE RIPPER: THE FACTS by Paul Begg (Robson, £10.95); JACK THE RIPPER by Mark Daniel - based on the recent TV film (Penguin, £2.99); JACK THE RIPPER edited by Caspar & Dozois - anthology of fiction (Futura, £4.99); YOURS TRULY FROM HELL by Terence Lore Smith - Ripper novel (Grafton, £3.50). Buccaneer Books have no plans at present to reprint 's IN & OUT OF CHARACTER.

New Granada Holmes videos out from Hendring are: COPP/NORW, REDH/FINA, EMPT/ABBE and SECO/MUSG. All are complete this time! Kevin Oxley (20 Caledonian Way, Darlington, County Durham DL1 3RJ) wants a video of THE MONOCLED MUTINEER. Fraser Smyth (32 Cirencester Road, Tetbury, Gloucestershire GL8 8EY) needs vol. 3 no. 1 and vol. 4 nos. 2 & 4 of the SHERLOCK HOLMES JOURNAL to complete his set.

Thanks for help with this issue to Catherine Cooke, Derek Hinrich, Tony Medawar, Bill Michell, Geoffrey Stavert, Douglas & Ivy Warren, Michael Cox and Kevin Oxley.