When Conan Doyle died, Holmes was already an international phenomenon, in print, on stage and screen. The classic image of Holmes in an Inverness cape and a deerstalker cap, created by the Strand illustrator, Sidney Paget, became instantly recognisable. Holmes first appeared in two novels, A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four (1891), but it was not until he featured in a series of short stories in the Strand Magazine from 1891 that his popularity and fame grew. I thought I would try my hand at writing a story in which the hero would treat crime as Dr Bell treated disease and where science would take the place of chance.’Īnd so Sherlock Holmes became the first scientific detective who had a remarkable facility for making keen observations and deducing facts from what he had observed. Reading some detective stories I was struck by the fact that their results were obtained in nearly every case by chance. He prided himself that when he looked at a patient he could tell not only their disease, but very often their occupation and place of residence. Doyle explained how he came to create the character in his autobiography, Memories & Adventures (1924): ‘I was educated in a very severe and critical school of medical thought, especially coming under the influence of Dr Bell of Edinburgh who had the most remarkable powers of observation. Step into the Hansom cab as we rattle down the foggy streets of Victorian London in the company of the world’s greatest detective and his loyal companion. There is a mystery to solve and Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are on the case.Īrthur Conan Doyle (1859 – 1930) could have had no idea that he was creating such an enduring icon when his first Sherlock Holmes adventure, the novella A Study in Scarlet, was published in 1887.
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