Sherlock’s swansong: the ideal Holmes expedition | Sarah Perry

The Reichenbach Falls hold a special place in the hearts of Sherlock Holmes devotees, and none more so than the author Sarah Perry, who travelled to Switzerland to see the scene of the master sleuth’s demise for herself

I am lately returned from a pilgrimage, bearing bloodied knees and a holy relic; my destination was a place of love and sacrifice that’s lived long in my heart. No Lourdes for me, though: I went to the Reichenbach Falls.

Lifelong Holmes devotees view the current Sherlockian fad with exasperated pride. On the one hand, any Holmes is better than none. On the other, the BBC’s Sherlock left me speechless with indignation: that Conan Doyle’s (almost) unfailingly courteous, just and asexual Holmes was reduced to a drunken, rude, sentimental sociopath had me calling for the reinstatement of the blasphemy laws.

The BBC's Sherlock left me speechless with indignation

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