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Our good friend Peter Blau, BSI writes:

“Nick Utechin will be Zooming in as guest speaker at the Red Circle’s virtual meeting on Saturday, September 5. Details are available at our web-site now: www.redcircledc.org. Everyone is welcome, and all that’s needed is to go to our web-site at the end of August and sign up for the Zoom meeting. A message will be sent to everyone with the meeting link. We also welcome questions for the guest speaker(via chat), and your members might be amused by what folks over here don’t know. Video of our June meeting is available at our web-site (Laurie R. King was our guest speaker) so people can see what goes on at our (virtual) gatherings.”

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For those who don’t know Nick …

      Nick Utechin joined The Sherlock Holmes Society of London in 1966 at the tender age of  14. Ten years later, he began a 30-year run as Editor of The Sherlock Holmes Journal, having been invested as a BSI (“The Ancient British Barrow”) in 1975. Nick was made an Honorary Member of the SHSL in 2006 and is also a Master Copper-beech-smith of The Sons of The Copper Beeches of Philadelphia. And on September 5 he will become a lifetime member of The Red Circle, as does everyone who attends at least one meeting.

      And for his visit with us Nick will take as his topic, “British Beginnings.” From Frank Sidgwick in 1902 to Ronald Knox in 1911 — via S.C.Roberts in 1929 and the first London society in 1934 — through to the vital 1951 London Sherlock Holmes Exhibition and the founding of the second London society, the “Old Country” set the pace in building the foundations of the Sherlockian world we enjoy today. Those of us who have enjoyed visiting our fellow devotees in Britain can attest to the pleasures that come with celebrating Sherlock Holmes on his native turf. Having Nick take us back to the very beginnings of the movement will be a special treat.

      Nick has published widely in the field of Sherlockian scholarship, most recently producing The Complete Paget Portfolio (2018) and The Milvertonians of Hampstead – Forgotten Writings of the Worst Men in London (2020). Last year, Nick summed up all relevant research that has been carried out over the years in a limited edition pamphlet entitled The Controversity – Was Sherlock Holmes at Oxford or Cambridge? Maybe all this Sherlockian activity over half-a-century can be explained by the fact that he is related to Basil Rathbone.

      Nick is a retired BBC Radio producer and presenter and will be joining us from his home in Oxford, U.K.