In the 1880s, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle practiced medicine from a small villa in the city of Portsmouth, and while he was there he created the Great Detective we all cherish to this day. There’s a plaque on that villa that commemorates the birth of Sherlock Holmes, but now residents of Portsmouth are (understandably) ready for a statue to be built there.
Celia Clark, chairwoman of The Portsmouth Society, said: ‘A small plaque on the side a block of flats is not terribly prominent.
‘It should be quite important to us as a city that Sherlock Holmes came to life on that very spot.
‘People coming from Japan and America must wonder where he did write it.
‘There is very little physical link to the character and Conan Doyle who was such a public figure.’
Filed under: Odds and ends on January 6th, 2009 | No Comments »
Reports are out of a new, “modern” (whatever that means – Holmes in a hovercraft?) Holmes story getting ready for filming in January 2009.
The 60-minute film is bring produced by Hartswood Films, which also produced Jekyll and Men Behaving Badly.
Notably, one of the writers of the drama is Steven Moffat, who steps into some very big shoes next year as he takes over for Russell T. Davies as the head writer for “Doctor Who”:
“Everything that matters about Holmes and Watson is the same. Conan Doyle’s original stories were never about frock coats and gas light - they’re about brilliant detection, dreadful villains and blood-curdling crimes. Other detectives have cases, Sherlock Holmes has adventures, and that’s what matters.”
That sounds pretty open-ended, particularly the bit about not needing frock coats and gas lights. Holmes without gas lights?
Filed under: Odds and ends, Non-canon on December 24th, 2008 | No Comments »
The Los Angeles Times just reviewed “Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong,” the new hardcover deconstruction of “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” The author, psychoanalyst Pierre Bayard, uses Holmes’ own methods on the text itself, questioning everything that is presented in the story, including the testimony of our good doctor himself.
With wit and careful analysis, Bayard makes a convincing case for not only Dr. Watson’s unreliability as narrator and eyewitness to the events in the novel but also the trickier assertion that Conan Doyle, who had actually killed off Holmes in an earlier story and was forced by popular demand to bring him back, became distracted by the fantastical setting and dog he had created and ignored the real killer operating in the margins.
Way to kill the party, Bayard. Next you’re going to tell us that the earth didn’t really stop rotating for a day like it says in the book of Joshua, right?
I’ve ordered my copy of this one … will have my own review in a few days.
Filed under: Readings on December 11th, 2008 | No Comments »
I don’t have the time to make it to New York to see the North American Cultural Laboratory’s current production, “The Uncanny Appearance of Sherlock Holmes.” After reading up on it, I’m undecided as to whether that makes me happy or sad.
“THE UNCANNY APPEARANCE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES” is a carnival-style crime investigation filled with live original rock music, high-energy acrobatics, slapstick comedy antics, cross-dressing, and twentieth century philosophy. The play follows the world-famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, as he investigates the bizarre murders of Dr. Jeremy Nietzsche and Dr. Kevin Freud. To complicate matters, Holmes becomes embroiled in a competition of wits against a formidable female detective, Jacqueline Derrida. As the investigation progresses, the case begins to unravel, and so does the very fabric of Holmes’s hyper-rational reality.
Hmm. Holmes plus rock music plus slapstick plus cross-dressing. The traditionalist in me says no, the open-minded adventurist in me says maybe. It runs through the 21st at the HERE Arts Center on Sixth Avenue.
Have you seen it? Leave a review in the comments, please … would love to hear about it.
Filed under: Odds and ends on December 11th, 2008 | No Comments »
Seattle Times columnist Adam Woog, who specializes in crime fiction, has just published an exhaustive list of his picks for the best mystery fiction of 2008. Among the many titles chosen is the latest Adam Dagliesh book from P.D. James, the new Rebus novel from Ian Rankin, and an honorable mention for what must be the 5,548th book by Alexander McCall Smith.
Here’s the whole list, to make your to-read pile even more towering!
Filed under: Readings on December 11th, 2008 | No Comments »
Wall Street Journal recently ran a rather lengthy excerpt from the new book, The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes, written by Andrew Lycett. The excerpt focuses on the events leading up to and culminating in the birth of the boy that would eventually grow up to be Sir Arthur.
Such professional brickbats did little to boost the mild-mannered man’s confidence, which had been further undermined when his second daughter Catherine died from water on the brain in October 1858 when she was six months old. As Dicky discovered when he passed through Edinburgh shortly afterward, Charles was in poor spirits and living in distressingly reduced circumstances at 11 Picardy Place when his first son arrived on the morning of May 22, 1859 and was given the names Arthur Ignatius Conan at his baptism at St. Mary’s two days later.
As usual among the Doyles, these names were carefully considered. Arthur signified history and place, albeit a romanticized version, looking back to King Arthur, the mythic architect of Britain; Ignatius faith, evoking the saint’s day on which Charles and Mary were married; and Conan kin, referring to the mixed Irish and European heritage of his mother’s forebears. These three strands were to battle for supremacy in Arthur’s personality.
You can read the whole excerpt here, or purchase the book here.
Filed under: Readings on December 12th, 2007 | No Comments »
From The Herald:
The childhood home of Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle has been rescued and transformed to house children with special needs.
The neglected cottage and garden adjacent to the Cameron Toll shopping centre in Edinburgh, where the author reputedly saw his first fairies, will be home to Dunedin School for educationally fragile children.
The cottage, known as Liberton Bank House, is a listed building and forms part of a site acquired by the Kilmartin Group for the construction of a new medical centre.
The developer assumed the role of good fairy when it agreed, subject to sufficient funds being raised by the school trustees and their partners, to gift the cottage to Cockburn Conservation Trust (CCT) for a nominal £1.
Filed under: Odds and ends on November 25th, 2007 | No Comments »
The Texas Radio Theatre Company is gearing up for a new production of “The Final Problem,” and it has spawned some real generosity on their part - they’re gradually releasing recordings of their previous Holmes productions in MP3 format. Here’s their 2002 performance of “The Red-Headed League.” It’s a full-cast recording, in front of a live audience.
Filed under: Odds and ends on November 13th, 2007 | No Comments »