Doings of Doyle - The Arthur Conan Doyle Podcast

Welcome to Episode 79. This time, we are delighted to welcome to the podcast, Dr Lindsey Fitzharris to talk about new book Sleuth-Hound, a whirlwind tour of Victorian forensics from the perspective of the medical detective, Joseph Bell, whose methods and razor-sharp logic inspired the creation of Baker Street’s most famous resident, Sherlock Holmes. 

Sleuth-Hound (Allen Lane, 2026)

Edinburgh, 1878. A medical student named Arthur Conan Doyle squeezes into the Royal Infirmary’s packed operating theatre, hoping to catch a glimpse of the celebrated professor whose uncanny powers of observation blur the line between diagnosis and detective work.

That professor was Joseph Bell, who became one of the most celebrated surgeons and medical reformers of his age. With a flair for the theatrical and an eye for clues hidden in the tiniest details, he astonished his students with lightning-fast deductions about his patients’ backgrounds and ailments. Together with Edinburgh’s chief police surgeon, Henry Duncan Littlejohn, Bell also investigated some of the highest-profile murders of the century, including those of Jack the Ripper, and collaborated with forensic specialists such as a ballistics expert named Dr. Watson. And as Conan Doyle’s mentor, Bell inspired the creation of literature’s most iconic sleuth: Sherlock Holmes.

International bestselling author Lindsey Fitzharris guides us through the smog-choked alleys and crowded slums of Victorian Edinburgh to tell the compelling, untold story of the birth of modern forensic science through the life of its most charismatic figure. 

[From the publisher: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/453146/sleuth-hound-by-fitzharris-lindsey/9780241632611]

Acknowledgements 

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 

YouTube video created by @headlinerapp. 

Hello and welcome to episode 78. This month we start our multi-part discussion of one Conan Doyle’s most important works, his historical romance Micah Clarke, first published in 1889.

You can read the story here.

The show notes will be available at https://bit.ly/DOD78sn (for all show notes, just replace ‘78’ with the episode number in question).

The episode will shortly be posted to our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle. Please like and subscribe.

Synopsis

Following the accession of Charles II in 1660, England has been at peace for a quarter of a century, but with Charles’s death, and the succession of his brother as James II, the storm clouds are gathering once more. In a sign of the times, a strange messenger, the mercenary soldier Decimus Saxon, arrives at the Hampshire home of former Cromwellian trooper Joseph Clarke, calling for his help in the Protestant Duke of Monmouth’s planned uprising against the Catholic King James. Joseph is too old for such a venture, so instead he volunteers the services of his son Micah…

Next time on Doings of Doyle…

We interrupt our discussion of Micah Clarke to bring you an interview with Lindsey Fitzharris, author of Sleuth-Hound, about Joseph Bell and the Edinburgh circle that inspired Sherlock Holmes.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.

This episode, we bring you two gems of a sort: Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes play The Crown Diamond and its short story equivalent ‘The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone’ (both 1921).

You can read the play here and the story here.

The show notes will be available at https://bit.ly/DOD77sn (for all show notes, just replace ‘77’ with the episode number in question).

The episode will shortly be posted to our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle. Please like and subscribe.

Synopsis of the short story

Following his departure from Baker Street, Dr Watson, although busy with his medical practice, decides to call upon his old friend, Sherlock Holmes. Holmes’s page, Billy, informs the doctor that the over-worked detective is actually asleep in his room, although curiously there is a life-size wax dummy of his old friend positioned by the sitting room window. In the midst of this odd scenario, Holmes appears to explain that he is investigating a baffling and perilous case involving the disappearance of one of the crown jewels, the famed Mazarin stone. At this point, Holmes’s principal suspect, Count Negretto Silvius, calls at Baker Street and Watson is hastily dispatched to fetch Inspector Youghal from Scotland Yard. In the meantime, Holmes proposes to detain the elegant and dangerous jewel thief himself…

Next time on Doings of Doyle…

We begin our exploration of Conan Doyle’s breakthrough novel, Micah Clarke.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.

Welcome to Episode 76. We are interrupting our scheduled programme as we have an excellent opportunity to speak with two guests we have wanted on the podcast for a very long time, the creator and curator of the Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia, Alexis Barquin, and recent recruit to the Encyclopaedia, Mark Chadderton.

About the Encyclopaedia 

The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia is an online repository of all works written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (fictions, essays, articles, poems, plays, lectures, letters, manuscripts...),but also all materials related to his life (newspaper articles, interviews, photos, movies...). The site is dedicated to promote the life and works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and to gather any materials related to the author. Visit the site: www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. 

Alexis Barquin

Alexis is the creator and curator of The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia, the world's most comprehensive online resource dedicated to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He lives in Paris, where he works as a web director for a market research company. He’s been a Sherlockian and Doylean for forty years, and was one of the co-founders of the Sherlock Holmes Society of France in 1993.

Mark Chadderton 

Mark has recently joined Alexis to help develop the Encyclopedia. He lives in Swanage, in Dorset, where he works for his local independent funeral directors, having previously been a civil servant. He writes for a national music magazine, runs three independent record labels and a book publisher, and is webmaster to a huge music archive website. 

Supporting the Encyclopaedia

You can donate to the Encyclopaedia here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/wiki/Support_Us. Donations above £12 receive access to the Search Fictions tool, which allows you to search the full text of 213 short stories, 24 novels and 16 plays, and a very fetching Arthur Conan Doyle lapel pin (black enamel cloisonné gold-colour, 0.75 inch / 1.9 cm).

Follow the Encyclopaedia on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheArthurConanDoyleEncyclopedia 

Contribute a document, link or image (minimum 300 dpi please) by emailing [email protected] 

Next time on Doings of Doyle…

We return to Sherlock Holmes with the stage play ‘The Crown Diamond’ and its short-story alter-ego ‘The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone’.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.

Hello and welcome to episode 75. This time, we discuss one of Conan Doyle’s most important and influential early stories, ‘J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement’, which appeared in the Cornhill in January 1884.

You can read the story here.

The show notes will be available at https://bit.ly/DOD75sn (for all show notes, just replace ‘75’ with the episode number in question).

The episode will shortly be posted to our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle. Please like and subscribe.

Synopsis

There have been many theories forwarded regarding the fate of the brig Marie Celeste, found drifting derelict in December 1873. But one man, Dr. J. Habakuk Jephson, knows the truth because he is the only known surviving passenger. Following service with the Union forces in the American Civil War during which he was badly wounded, Jephson settled down to regular medical practice in Brooklyn. But years of overwork, weak lungs, and the lingering effects of his war wound leave his own doctor to suggest recuperation via a long sea voyage. Unfortunately, the chosen vessel is Marie Celeste, whose passenger list is expanded by the last minute addition of the apparently wealthy Septimius Goring, a man of mysterious and sinister aspect and antecedents. At first, all goes well, until the captain’s wife and child are tragically lost overboard mid-Atlantic, following which the ship appears to be cursed…   

Warning

The story contains racist language and depictions, which we discuss. If this is likely to offend, you may want to skip this episode.

Next time on Doings of Doyle…

We return to Sherlock Holmes with the stage play ‘The Crown Diamond’ and its short-story alter-ego ‘The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone’.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.

In the second of our bonus episodes, Mark talks with historian and author Ollie Randall about his book Writers in Whites: How a group of literary cricketers changed English culture (London: Fairfield Books, 2026) which is released today.

Bonus episodes are released early to patrons. If you want to hear these episodes when they are first available, sign up at https://www.patreon.com/doingsofdoyle as a free or paid member.

Ollie Randall

Ollie Randall is a writer, historian and cartoonist. He completed his doctoral thesis, 'Cricket, Literary Culture and Englishness' in January 2026, which has become the basis for his book Writers in Whites (2026). Ollie has written articles for a variety of publications, including The Sherlock Holmes Journal, and most frequently the Times Literary Supplement. He has worked as the historical researcher for a former leader of the House of Lords, and as a tour manager on cultural tours. His second book, Lord’s and Maharajas – about the political intrigue and imperial crisis that shaped the origins of Indian international cricket – is due out in Autumn 2026.

Next time on Doings of Doyle…

For our 75th regular episode, we cover one of Conan Doyle’s most important early stories, ‘J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement’ (1884). You can read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/wiki/J._Habakuk_Jephson%27s_Statement 

Acknowledgements 

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 

YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.

Hello and welcome to this bonus episode of the podcast. This time, Mark talks with author and researcher Philipp Schöbi about The Feldkirchian Gazette, the school newspaper edited by Arthur Conan Doyle while a student at the Stella Matutina in Feldkirch in 1875-76.

This interview is a taster of the full article on the Gazette that we published on the website in March 2026. You can read the article here:

https://www.doingsofdoyle.com/2026/03/httpswww.doingsofdoyle.com202603the-feldkirchian-gazette.html

Our thanks to Markus Geisser for translating Philipp's answers.

Bonus episodes are released early to patrons. If you want to hear these episodes when they are first available, sign up at https://www.patreon.com/doingsofdoyle as a free or paid member.

Acknowledgements 

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 

YouTube video created by @headlinerapp. 

This month, we are delighted to welcome to the podcast Dr Anastasia Klimchynskaya to talk all things Arthur Conan Doyle and Science Fiction.

Anastasia Klimchynskaya

Anastasia is a scholar of nineteenth-century literature, particularly science fiction, and is Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Illinois Wesleyan University in the USA. She has presented widely on Sherlock Holmes, Jules Verne, Frankenstein, and science fiction, and contributed to the Rosenbach Museum and Library's Sherlock Monthly webinar series. She is also the author of Science Fiction and the Modern World, a sweeping study of the emergence of science fiction in the nineteenth century, which has just been published by Liverpool University Press. https://www.anaklimchy.com/

Books by Anastasia:

Anastasia Klimchynskaya, Science Fiction and the Modern World (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2026) - https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9781836244905 

Anastasia Klimchynskaya (ed.), From the Earth to the Moon, Annotated for Our Spacefaring Age (Forthcoming) - https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262553865/from-the-earth-to-the-moon/ 

Next time on Doings of Doyle…

For our 75th episode, we cover one of Conan Doyle’s most important early stories, ‘J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement’ (1884). You can read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/wiki/J._Habakuk_Jephson%27s_Statement

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.

This episode, we attend an army barracks where a card game raises questions of honour in ‘A Regimental Scandal’, published in 1892.

You can read the story here.

Listen to the episode below or on your podcaster of choice.

The show notes will be available at https://bit.ly/DOD73sn (for all show notes, just replace ‘73’ with the episode number in question).

The episode will shortly be posted to our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle. Please like and subscribe!

Synopsis

Major Errington is one of the most respected and popular officers in the Third Carabiniers, a veteran of numerous campaigns as both a soldier and a war correspondent. He is quiet, self-effacing and wise; he is also rich, but far from ostentatious. He is in fact more notable than the regiment’s nominal commander, Colonel Lovell, who is not unpopular but granted a degree of favour for his widely admired daughter, Violet. Lovell, or the Chief as he is known, is at heart an old-fashioned plunger who loves horses and gambling, but has also taken to playing the stock market and has had his fingers badly burned in American railway speculation. To recoup some of these losses, he takes to high-stakes games of écarté with Major Errington with little success. And then a rumour takes hold that the Major may be cheating…

Next time on Doings of Doyle…

We welcome to the podcast Anastasia Klimchinskaya to talk about ACD and science fiction.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.

This episode, we return to the Feldkirch plateau in Austria where a small village is terrorised by a serial killer in ‘A Pastoral Horror’, first published in 1890.

You can read the story here.

The show notes will be available at https://bit.ly/DOD72sn (for all shownotes, just replace ‘72’ with the episode number in question).

The episode will shortly be posted to our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle. Please like and subscribe.

Synopsis

Following the collapse of a city firm and the loss of his capital, John Hudson is forced to find an affordable place to live while he waits for legal restitution. He fixes upon the Austrian Tyrolean village of Laden where he settles into a contented if somewhat dull existence, enlivened to some extent by the presence of the intellectual village priest Father Verhagen. This placid atmosphere however is shattered by the gruesome murder of one of the villagers. At first, the killing is blamed on an itinerant Italian pedlar with whom the victim had quarrelled, but the police have to release their suspect when a second and more prominent villager is also murdered and a reign of terror begins…  

Next time on Doings of Doyle…

We head back into military life where a game of cards erupts into ‘A Regimental Scandal’ (1892). Read it here.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.