The Sherlock Holmes Journal
It is always a pleasure to receive the Sherlock Holmes Journal, and even more so just now when largely housebound. The summer 2020 edition is as usual packed full of interesting and sometimes quite esoteric articles. For example, who would have thought a disquisition on the tantalus could be quite so… tantalising. (This object, for those who don’t know, is a small liquor cabinet that secures flasks by means of a locking mechanism, thereby preventing servants illicitly quenching their thirst). A tantalus features as a strong clue to the murderer in the story The Adventure of Black Peter, as recounted here by Sonia Featherston.
[image error]
I was also diverted by Sarah Obermuller Bennett’s beautifully illustrated article on ‘Conan Doyle and the Postcard Connection’. Sir Arthur was for twenty-one years a director of Raphael Tuck and Co, as he writes in his memoir ‘without a cloud to darken the long and pleasant memory’. Despite his involvement, it seems the company rather surprisingly issued very few Sherlock Holmes postcards, the exceptions being an image of William Gillette playing the detective, and a caricature of the same actor as a cat. However, Tuck’s archive was destroyed in 1940 during the blitz, so no one is quite sure what it contained.
I love the way so many of the contributors to the journal write as if Holmes and Watson were real people (spoiler: they are in fact fictional creations!) Thus John Sheppard examines the religion and philosophy of the pair as gleaned from the Canon. He concludes that they have fairly conventional Christian beliefs, due largely to a propensity to quote from the Bible, though he allows that Holmes also toyed with Buddhism.
In a similar vein, Vincent Delay, Curator of the Sherlock Holmes Museum Lucens and President of the Suisse-Romande Society for Holmes Studies, evaluates the extent of Holmes’ legal knowledge, and his sometimes flexible interpretation of the law in the light of common humanity. For example, in The Blue Carbuncle, having solved the case, he allows the thief to go free. It is Christmas, after all.
Lest you think the contents are all very earnest, some delightful cartoons are scattered throughout, as well as a hilarious version of The Hound of the Baskervilles brought right up to date by Roger Bird in his short piece baskerville.com, featuring references to Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, drones and location apps. Auberon Redfearn, a regular contributor, has, in turn, written a witty playlet showing Holmes and Watson coping with lockdown.
[image error]
The journal also commemorates Freda Howlett who died this year at the great age of 101. Freda was a Past President of the Sherlock Holmes Society, taking over after the death of her husband, Tony, and only retiring at the age of 91. The couple are pictured here looking splendid at Reichenbach in May 1987.
Together with a small group of enthusiasts, Freda and Tony first had the idea to set up the society on February 20 1951, a date which Tony described with perhaps only slight exaggeration as ‘the most fateful in the history of the world’. Freda, an elegant lady, features on the journal’s cover, and inside are many loving tributes to her.
With lots of other titbits as well as book and theatre reviews, the journal as ever provides a terrific read for Holmes’ fans.
http://www.sherlock-holmes.org.uk
Buy ‘Mrs Hudson Investigates’ at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mrs-Hudson-Investigates-Susan-Knight/dp/1787054845 or at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1787054845/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
Now also available on Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Mrs-Hudson-Investigates…/…/B081PDMJ9Z
