The Statue now belongs to the City of Westminster. On stage: John Doubleday, Albert Kunz, Terry Harding, Tony Howlett, unidentified gent, Deputy Lord Mayor & Peter Horrocks (photo courtesy of Terry & Barbara Harding)

Richard Lancelyn Green (photo by James Hayzen)

Jonathan McCafferty & Nick Utechin (photo by James Hayzen)

Elaine McCafferty, Philip Porter & Helen Dorey (photo by James Hayzen)

Thanks to Peggy Perdue, Alistair Duncan & Paul Thomas Miller for their outstanding talks, to Catherine Cooke for chairing the meeting, and to Jane Arnold-Forster for her technical wizardry!

Points from the floor include Auberon Redfearn's observation that "The Case-Book" contains such classic lines as "Come at once if convenient. If inconvenient come all the same..."

The motto of Doyle's Rotary Coffin is "No Holmes Barred - Especially Dreadful Holmes, Bizarre Holmes and Sacrilegious Holmes." Today's talk falls under the heading of "Bizarre Holmes" (and why not!).

Bear in mind that S is the 19th letter of the alphabet, and see if you can follow Paul Thomas Miller's ingenious reasoning.

In this curious tale, one of only two written by Sherlock Holmes himself, Paul Thomas Miller has found an astonishing prophecy...

Yes, 95 years ago, if Paul Thomas Miller's deductions are correct, Sherlock Holmes predicted the Covid-19 pandemic!

"The Secret Message in 'The Blanched Soldier'" - discovered by Paul Thomas Miller - is a remarkable one indeed.

Paul Thomas Miller, founder of The Shingle of Southsea and Doyle's Rotary Coffin, speaks to us from the Sherloft, the attic room in his Portsmouth home.

What approach will our third speaker, Paul Thomas Miller, take?

Our first speaker, Peggy Perdue, played the Game, attributing the stories in "The Case-Book" to John H. Watson. Our second, Alistair Duncan, accepted the authorship of Arthur Conan Doyle.

Conan Doyle's main reason for writing the "Case-Book" stories was to help finance his spiritualist crusade. Even so, the best are as good as any in the Holmesian canon.

The editor of "The Strand Magazine" wanted more Sherlock Holmes stories. Perhaps he was encouraged by the popular films starring Eille Norwood as Holmes.

The first of the "Case-Book" stories to be written was “The Mazarin Stone”, which uses the plot of Conan Doyle's unsuccessful play "The Crown Diamond".

Alistair Duncan (no, that isn't actually his home) considers the reason why Conan Doyle wrote these twelve very diverse stories.

Our next speaker is Alistair Duncan, to tell us about "The Case of the Casebook".

Peggy Perdue's theory about "The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes" certainly makes one think!