132 I AM AN OMNIVOROUS READER Book reviews by DAVID STUART DAVIES, KATHRYN DAVIES, JONATHAN HOPSON, AUDREY JONES, DAVID JONES, CARRIE PARRIS, NICHOLAS UTECHIN and ROGER JOHNSON No Better Place: Arthur Conan Doyle, Windlesham and distracting inclusion of hidden references to the and Communication with the other side (1907- Canon within the text, which are jarring to read. Parts 1930) by Alistair Duncan 0; 3XEOLVKLQJ 2015. of the book are arranged around walks, but these 434pp. £14.99 (pbk) seem somewhat arbitrary in their composition, not This excellent book is the eagerly awaited third and being structured around any particular story or theme. ¿QDOYROXPHLQ$OLVWDLU'XQFDQ¶VVWXG\RIWKHOLIHRI Nevertheless, it is clear that a lot of research has gone Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It deals with the last twenty- into this book and it contains some interesting facts three years of the great author’s life from the year of about the great cesspool. A pleasant introduction for his second marriage to Jean Leckie until his death the budding Sherlock fan who is unfamiliar with the in 1930. These years saw his move to Windlesham, Victorian world, but not a necessity for the seasoned the birth of three children, more literary success, the Holmesian. GLVFRYHU\RIDQHZIDLWKWKH¿QDOVWRULHVRI6KHUORFN CP Holmes and, of course, the First World War. This meticulously researched book gives us an impartial account of Conan Doyle’s life in a The Sherlock Holmes Book . 'RUOLQJ .LQGHUVOH\ . chronological format. Mr Duncan has succeeded, 215. 352pp. £16.99 (hbk) as David Stuart Davies notes in his Foreword, in David Stuart Davies and Barry Forshaw, both opening “that secret door to Conan Doyle’s personal estimable, are credited as consultant editors of this life through his admirable and exhaustive research handsome volume, though apparently they had into both the author’s private and public activities. We little control over the content. I don’t recognise the are given a detailed blow by blow, virtually day by names of the other six contributors, and we aren’t day, account of the doings of Arthur.” Conan Doyle, told who wrote what, which is rather frustrating, in his later years, was preoccupied with his belief as there’s a separate chapter for each story, and the in Spiritualism, an interest which prompted ridicule approach differs from one to the next. The constant IURPVFLHQWL¿FDQGUHOLJLRXVFRPPXQLWLHV0U'XQFDQ factor is a comprehensive summary of the story, deals sensitively with this issue; he presents the facts with spoilers, making the book less suitable for the and allows the reader to form their own opinions. The novice than for the devotee — but the devotee will book is enhanced by the inclusion of extracts from be rewarded with an abundance of interesting facts the papers of Conan Doyle’s daughter Mary, by kind and intelligent opinions. There are individual chapters permission of Mrs Georgina Doyle, and photographs RQWUXHDQG¿FWLRQDOFULPHSROLFLQJORJLFFDQRQLFDO from the latter’s private collection. Also included characters, dramatic interpretations and the world- are photographs from the private collection of Brian wide Holmesian phenomenon. This is a good-looking Pugh, Curator of The Conan Doyle (Crowborough) book, enticingly priced. Establishment. 1R %HWWHU 3ODFH is a relaxed and RJ absorbing read which, as Georgina Doyle notes “is a triumph of research and is a worthy contribution to the biographical material on Conan Doyle’s complex The Golden Age of Murder: the Mystery of the character.” High praise indeed — and well deserved! Writers Who Invented the Modern Detective Story DJ by Martin Edwards. +DUSHU&ROOLQV3XEOLVKHUV . 2015. xxiv + 481pp. £20.00 (hbk) This book analyses the development of detective Sherlock Holmes’s London: Explore the City in the ¿FWLRQ EHWZHHQ WKH ZDUV WKURXJK WKH SULVP RI WKH Footsteps of the Great Detective by Rose Shepherd. Detection Club, founded in 1930 as an elite dining &,&2%RRNV . 2015. 160pp. £16.99/$24.95 (hbk) society for leading practitioners. There is much here This attractive book is a guide to London as to interest Holmesians, not least to remind them that featured in the Canon and in screen adaptations (with 'R\OHUHWDLQHGKLVLQÀXHQFHDVDXWKRUDQGLQYHVWLJDWRU noticeable attention given to the BBC’s 6KHUORFN and up until his death. Only poor health compelled him Guy Ritchie’s 6KHUORFN +ROPHV ). It features some WRGHFOLQHWKH&OXE¶V¿UVWSUHVLGHQF\DQGLWZDV*. arresting reproductions of Victorian photographs Chesterton who accepted the mantle; other such of London which are beautifully presented. eminent Edwardians as R Austin Freeman, Arthur Unfortunately, the accompanying prose is often rather Morrison and Baroness Orczy joined to socialise clunky, and made even more so by the unnecessary with the modern generation of writers. Club members 133 (notably Anthony Berkeley, Ronald Knox and you are interested in visuals, buying a collection of Dorothy L Sayers) promoted critical appreciation of Holmes DVDs will bring you more pleasure. WKHFDQRQDQGKHOSHGIRUPWKH¿UVW6KHUORFN+ROPHV DSD Society in 1934. Doyle was a founder member of the Crimes Club, which had provided a congenial forum In the Shadow of the Alabama — The British for the gentleman criminologist since 1903. The )RUHLJQ 2I¿FH DQG WKH $PHULFDQ &LYLO :DU by Detection Club maintained the same keen interest in Renata Eley Long. 1DYDO,QVWLWXWH3UHVV . 2015. xiv + contemporary crime (especially unsolved cases), but 254pp. £25.05 (hbk) with a deliberate gaiety expressed in a taste for MHX[ The pride of the Confederate Navy was built in G¶HVSULW . The serious pursuit of fun through parodies, (QJODQG GHVSLWH DQ RI¿FLDO EDQ RQ WKH SURYLVLRQ puzzles, codes and rituals provided a comforting of weapons for states at war. British opinion of the distraction from the public and private griefs of American Civil War was split, with much support for Britain after the Great War. the Confederacy among cotton mill owners, though Edwards, a distinguished crime writer who is also most mill ZRUNHUV favoured the Union cause. And archivist/president-elect of the Club, employs wit and the division in political circles was deep. Politicians, scholarship to defend the genre against the familiar aristocrats, civil servants, arms manufacturers, charges of cosy humdrummery and “snobbery with businessmen all played their part in the drama. So did violence”. He reappraises famous names, remembers spies and detectives, such as Paul Ignatius Pollaky, the forgotten (including Doyle’s godson Bruce who worked for the US government, observing Hamilton) and never neglects his duty to entertain, Confederate agents in Britain (see Bryan Kesselman’s while offering a shrewd commentary on what John ³3DGGLQJWRQ´ 3ROODN\ 3ULYDWH 'HWHFWLYH , reviewed Dickson Carr called “the grandest game in the world”. in the last issue). But there’s a connection that’s closer JH to Holmes. The Confederates evidently had a mole in WKH)RUHLJQ2I¿FHDQGDSULQFLSDOVXVSHFWZDV9LFWRU Buckley, whose position was curiously similar to that Investigating Sherlock ²7KH8QRI¿FLDO*XLGH by of Percy Phelps. Ms Long notes, however, that in “The Nikki Stafford. 0\UPLGRQ . 2015. 229pp. £9.99 (pbk) Naval Treaty” Conan Doyle appears to have drawn Yes, WKH XQRI¿FLDO JXLGH (DFK HSLVRGH LV RQ³PRUHWKDQRQH)RUHLJQ2I¿FHEHWUD\DO´DQGWKH summarised and reviewed; interesting aspects are names she puts forward are all connected in some way SRLQWHGRXW²VRPHVLJQL¿FDQWEXWHDVLO\RYHUORRNHG with the $ODEDPD affair. But her book should be read some amusing (mention of “a Conan Doyle novella” anyway, because of the light it throws on a confused in 7KH5HLFKHQEDFK)DOO ), some just clever; slips are period in British history, and especially on the Anglo- noted (the disappearing and reappearing skull in 7KH American relations that were so important to Arthur %OLQG%DQNHU ); and the many canonical references are Conan Doyle — and still are to us. indicated. We know that the creators of 6KHUORFN are RJ devotees of Conan Doyle’s great original, but few of us, I suspect, appreciate just how much of the canon there is in the TV drama. There’s much more here, Mycroft Holmes b y Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna including interviews with three leading Canadian Waterhouse. 7LWDQ%RRNV . 2015. 323pp. £17.99 (hbk) scholars, Chris Redmond, Charles Prepolec and It is 1870. Mycroft Holmes, a Cambridge graduate Peter Calamai. Although we’ll soon be watching 7KH still in his twenties, is on his way to a glittering career $ERPLQDEOH%ULGH , there’s unlikely to be an updated in the British Government, He is the right hand man edition of ,QYHVWLJDWLQJ6KHUORFN until after Series 4; to the Secretary of State for War, while his eccentric meanwhile I can thoroughly recommend this one. brother is still a student. Full of the energy and RJ enthusiasm of youth, Mycroft is not just advancing in the ranks of government, he has also fallen in love with the clever Georgiana, a scholar at Girton. Sherlock Holmes: The Basil Rathbone Years & Though she seems the quintessential English rose, her Other Films by Scott Palmer. ;OLEULV . 2015. 242pp. roots are in Port of Spain, Trinidad where her parents £55.88 >VLF@ (pbk) own a sugar plantation. It so happens that Mycroft’s The misleading title is not the only odd thing about own Dr Watson, Cyrus Douglas, also hails from Port this book, for it is not restricted to Rathbone’s Holmes of Spain and this is the connection which binds the ¿OPVLQFOXGLQJWKHWZR)R[IHDWXUHVEXWDOVRORRNV three together setting in train a series of disturbing at most of the major Holmes movies made between events. Douglas, a tall black man with a witty turn of 1931 and 1991, and it features individual episodes phrase, is the proprietor of an exclusive tobacco store from the Cushing & Brett TV series. What it gives the where Mycroft buys his cigars. He imparts to Mycroft reader is a cast list, a simple plot synopsis (but with no news of troubling events in Port of Spain where his critical comment) and a series of small screen shots relatives live and, until recently, have sent letters to IURPWKHPRYLHV5XQQLQJWRDERXW¿IWHHQWRDSDJH him.