Journal – Summer 2014

The Sherlock Holmes Journal is published twice a year, usually in June and December. It is the official voice of the Society and contains its Transactions, news and reviews, letters and editorial notes. It is also home to the most erudite scholarship, publishing learned articles from Holmesians world-wide who have something to say on any aspect of Sherlock Holmes and his world. It has been appearing without a break since the first issue in May 1952.

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Book reviews

The most recent issue, Summer 2014, contains the following articles, as well as the usual reviews and letters:

EDITORIAL: “IN MEMORY OF THE OCCASION”

The original Sherlock Holmes Society held its first meeting eighty years ago, the day after the first meeting of the Baker Street Irregulars. Other notable anniversaries include the pairing of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce in “The Hound of the Baskervilles” (1939), the publication of “The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes” (1954), Peter Cushing’s first appearance as Holmes (1959), Douglas Wilmer’s (1964), the RSC’s revival of the play “Sherlock Holmes”, and the publication of “The Seven-per-Cent Solution” (1974), Granada TV’s first series of “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” (1984), the start of the Radio 4 complete dramatisation of the canon (1989), and Roger Llewellyn’s first solo performance as the great detective in “Sherlock Holmes – the Last Act!” (1999).

EDITORIAL NOTES

The winner of the 2014 Tony & Freda Howlett Literary Award is Nicholas Utechin, for his book “Occasionally to Embellish”.

The Hill House at Happisburgh, on the Norfolk coast, now has a microbrewery called The Dancing Men Brewery, named after the story that Conan Doyle wrote after staying there in 1903.

The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at Toronto Reference Library has re-opened in the new Arthur Conan Doyle Room, which is part of the shiny new Marilyn & Charles Baillie Special Collections Centre on the 5th floor of the library.

Undershaw, Conan Doyle’s former home at Hindhead, has been bought by the DFN Charitable Foundation, and will become part of a special needs school for children and young adults with mild learning and physical difficulties.

According to the BBC TV series “Sherlock”, Dr Watson attended the same school as one of your editors…

When Calvert and Carole Markham visited Uzbekistan, they didn’t have too much difficulty in buying an Uzbek translation of Sherlock Holmes.

We mourn the loss of our American members Vincent Brosnan and Joseph W Moran, both eminent BSIs and both good friends to many of us.

‘ALL LONDON SHIVERED’: SAINTSBURY, HARDING AND ‘THE SPECKLED BAND’ by Richard Burnip

Richard Burnip goes back to contemporary accounts to build up a clear picture of the circumstances around the original production of “The Speckled Band”, to examine some of its controversial aspects, and to look at the two fine actors who played Sherlock Holmes and Grimesby Rylott [sic].

“THE BLUE CARBUNCLE”: THE CASE OF THE MIXED GENRE by Nils Clausson

It may be a “Christmas story without slush” but “The Blue Carbuncle” is also both a crime story and a story of circulation.

WHO WAS VON BORK? by Marcus Geisser

The Kaiser’s master-spy was inspired by a German Junker who accompanied Conan Doyle on an international motor rally in 1911.

“A STUDY IN SCARLET” reviewed by Valerie Schreiner

An exciting new dramatisation of the very first Sherlock Holmes story, produced by Tacit Theatre at Southwark Playhouse.

JOHN DOUBLEDAY AND THE LAUTERBRUNNEN BELL by Albert Kunz

A series of eight paintings by our distinguished Honorary Member, creator of the statues of Sherlock Holmes in London and Meiringen, tells of a remarkable feat by the people of Lauterbrunnen in the 15th century. The paintings will be installed in the restaurant of the new Eigergletscher Station on the Jungfraubahn.

THE VANISHING BARONET by Anon

Was the notorious Tichborne claimant really an imposter?

HOLMES ON THE BOX reviewed by Matthew J Elliott

Two very worthwhile documentaries were broadcast to coincide with the transmission of “Sherlock” series three: “Timeshift: How to Be Sherlock Holmes” and “How Sherlock Changed the World” – and the Society provided assistance on both.

MARK’S SHERLOCK EPIPHANY by Akiko Sato

As part of the British Film Institute’s Screen Epiphany programme, in which prominent figures from the arts discuss films that have inspired them, Mark Gatiss introduced “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes”, which greatly influenced the creation and development of “Sherlock”.

“YOU HAVE THE PHOTOGRAPH?” – ALEX BURNHAM, THE VICTORIAN PHOTOGRAPHER by David Jones

On 21 March, Alex Burnham showed us some of his collection of Victorian photographic equipment, and gave us a fascinating account of the development of photography in the 19th century.

“EAST WIND COMING” by Roger Johnson

The Annual Dinner on 11 January took its theme from “His Last Bow”, set just a century ago. The Tony Howlett Award was presented to Catherine Cooke, whose work for the Society has been outstanding. The Guest of Honour was Brian Perkins, one of the great radio announcers, who came from New Zealand in the early 1960s, fascinated by London and Sherlock Holmes. Nick Utechin, the second speaker, told of his grandfather’s miraculous escape from death while serving in Mesopotamia in 1916.

“IT SEEMS TO ME…” by Auberon Redfearn

Could Jefferson Hope really have been a London cabbie? And how does Dr Redfearn manage to convey the essence of “His Last Bow” in just fourteen lines of verse?

SOME OBSERVATIONS by Nick Dunn Meynell

An occasional new column. Nick Dunn Meynell deduces a dire fate for Watson’s copy of “Beeton’s Christmas Annual”, proposes a connection between Zeppelins, the National Portrait Gallery, and two Holmeses, and suspects that the foreign potentate of “The Second Stain” wasn’t so foreign after all.

NOSTRADAMUS, MILTON, WILDE, HOMER: DOYLE’S WEB OF ALLUSIONS by Tomoyuki Tanaka

Literary influences on the chronicles of Sherlock Holmes.

“I AM AN OMNIVOROUS READER”

Book reviews by Roger Johnson.

WIGMORE STREET POSTBAG

Letters to “The Sherlock Holmes Journal”.

“THERE CAN BE NO QUESTION AS TO THE AUTHORSHIP”

Contributors to this issue of “The Sherlock Holmes Journal”.

“OVERRUN BY OYSTERS” by Julie Cohen

Another surreal cartoon.

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