Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is our old friend Michael Sims, who we haven’t seen in a while but who has visited us in the past to discuss such arcane topics as The Story of Charlotte’s Web and Victorian Women in Crime.

This week we’ll be talking with Michael about Sherlock Holmes and his literary father Arthur Conan Doyle. The book is Arthur and Sherlock: Conan Doyle and the Creation of Holmes.

Michael has also written the award winning Adam’s Navel, The Adventures of Henry Thoreau and so many others. Many of which deal with the classics and Victorian Literature.

Arthur and Sherlock gives us a well rounded and entertaining explanation of the reasons behind the creation of Holmes and his first appearance in A Study in Scarlet.

I started reading Sherlock when I was 12, as did Michael, but for those who may be late comers or unfamiliar with Sherlock, you’ll be fascinated to learn about Arthur’s early years and the many influences that led to the creation of the world’s most renowned detective.

From Arthur’s medical school professor Dr. Joseph Bell, to Edgar Allen Poe’s detective Dupin.

As we read we begin to understand the creation of Holmes, down to his very name and we get a much better picture of this fascinating creature that still seems to appear on the silver screen annually and whose very name connotes so much to us and for that matter to every school child.