Description
Date of publication: 2012
Edited by Carrie Chandler, Robert Ellis and Guy Marriott
114 Pages
A Sherlock Holmes Swiss Account Book
This handbook was produced to mark the Society’s 7th pilgrimage to Switzerland in 2012 and features an eclectic mix of articles related to that fateful (and fatal) journey of 1891. Our contributors have attempted to provide answers to some of those elusive questions left open by Dr. Watson in ‘The Final Problem’ and ‘The Empty House.’ Exactly how long was that charming week? Was the destination of Meiringen part of a plan or merely a coincidence? What was Holmes’s escape route from the Reichenbach Falls and how did he get out of Switzerland? Our contributors have also reviewed Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s holidays in the Alps, reflecting on his decision to kill off the great detective at the Falls and speculating on the inspiration behind Professor Moriarty. Other canonical connections to Switzerland have been considered, including the truth behind the activities of Baron Gruner and Rev. Dr. Shlessinger.
Return to the Reichenbach contains several articles commemorating some of the unique events arranged for the 2012 pilgrimage. John Doubleday has provided an article on the production of his ice sculpture of Holmes at the Ice Palace at the Jungfraujoch (Europe’s highest railway station, celebrating its 100th anniversary). Peter Horrocks describes for us the career of Christian Ferdinand Schiess VC, whose actions at the Battle of Rorke’s Drift during the Zulu War were honoured during the pilgrimage. The publication also remembers those who have made the pilgrimage in the past – Tony Howlett’s notes on the canonical path to the falls from 1948 and also an article by the BSI’s Ronald Burt De Waal on a Sherlockian Trip to Europe he made in 1974.
