22, WISTERI A LODGE SPRINGFIELD CHELMSFORD ESSEX. CM1 5FT The District Messenger (0245) 468422

THE NEWSLETTER OF THE SHERLOCK HOLMES SOCIETY OF LONDON no. 6l 21st August 1987

Recently out: THE ILLUSTRATED SHERLOCK HOLMES TREASURY by Arthur Conan Doyle (Crown Publishers/Merehurst, £7.95) and THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES by ACD (Laurel Press, £2.50). Forthcoming is H.R.F. Keating's CRIME & MYSTERY: THE 100 BEST BOOKS, critical essays (24 September, Xanadu, £9.95); THE ADVENTURES and THE HOUND are among the best hundred. In September there'll be a new Baker Street Irregulars novel by Terrance Dicks, THE CRIMINAL COMPUTER (Blackie, £6.95).

From Geoff Bradley: SAGA MAGAZINE (75p, should be available from SAGA, Bouverie House, Middelburg Square, Folkestone, Kent CT20 1AZ) for July-August has a 1- page article on the Centenary. Paper House, Shepherd Road, Gloucester GL2 6EL, publishes a belated-birthday card, with Holmes deducing Watson's birthday.

Two further spin-offs from BASIL, THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE. Ladybird Books have a retelling of the film story at 85p; the usual nice production job. For £2.99 your newsagent will sell you TAPES & TALES no. 7, a magazine containing yet another retelling of the story plus a cassette tape with Andrew Sachs rea- ding the text; as a bonus (depending on your tastes) is a retelling of THE FOX & THE HOUND, read on the tape by Wendy Craig.

I've received the new catalogue from Grey House Books (12A Lawrence Street, Chelsea, London SW3), one of Britain's leading specialists in crime & mystery fiction; there's a 24 page supplementary list on Sherlock Holmes/Arthur Conan Doyle. Prices range from the reasonable to the astonishing.

David Stuart Davies has been on a pilgrimage, visiting houses used for location filming in Granada's Holmes TV series. En route, he found that the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway (Haworth, Keighley, West Yorkshire) sells a postcard with a photo of Jeremy Brett & Edward Hardwicke taken during filming of THE ABBEY GRANGE (no price mentioned).

From Kyle Richeson: from 23 September to 31 January, Americans can buy the video of YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES for only $19.95 (regular price is $79.95). From Tony Howlett: the 1912 silent version of THE COPPER BEECHES with Georges Treville is available on video and 35mm film from Warner Features Inc.

From Catherine Cooke: Westminster City Library's Sherlock Holmes Centenary Celebrations will involve the following - Tuesday 3 November, a debate on the mo- tion "That Sherlock Holmes is a figment of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's imagination"; Tuesday 10 November, an illustrated talk on the 1987 Swiss trip; Tuesday 17 November, a lecture by Bernard Davies on "The London of Sherlock Holmes". Full details nearer the time.

From John E. Stephenson: Quinlan Press (131 Beverly Street, Boston, Massachu- setts 02114, USA) has published THE OFFICIAL SHERLOCK HOLMES TRIVIA BOOK by Richard Ryan at $7.95. Alitalia Airlines' in-flight magazine ULISSE 2000 has an article "Buon Compleanno, Sherlock". MAGAZINE LITTERAIRE (40 Rue des Saints- Peres, 75007 Paris, France) has a series of long articles (in French) about Sherlock Holmes. CRIME TIMES for May/June has an ad for "Bearlock Holmes" Teddy Bear (item 3439) at $19.95 L $2.5O postage. Two further Holmesian magazines are HOLMESIAN FEDERATION ($4 from Signe Landon, 14985 256th Street SE, Issaquah, WA 98027, USA) and THE BAKER STREET GAZETTE ($4 from Shardia Rizzuto, PO Box 994, Matairoe, Louisiana 70004, USA). Edna Whiteson, A.B.A. (66 Belmont Avenue, Cockfosters, Herts EN4 9LA.) has a catalogue available of books by and about Arthur Conan Doyle.