A Scandal in Bohemia: from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, was born in Edinburgh in 1859 and went on to become many things - medical doctor, goalkeeper extraordinaire (Portsmouth A.F.C.), demon bowler for the M.C.C. (7 wickets for 61 runs versus Cambridgeshire in 1899) and Knight of Justice of St. John. He is best known of course for having created one of the most famous and celebrated characters in the whole canon of English literature, Sherlock Holmes.

During his medical studies at Edinburgh University, he began to write short stories and perhaps continued to do so while working as a ship’s doctor in the early 1880s. After a couple of years at sea, Doyle got his feet back on dry land and joined, ultimately rather unsuccessfully, a medical practice in Plymouth. It was here that he began his putting pen to paper with greater frequency due to the lack of patients. This dearth of patients in Doyle’s waiting room of course would eventually prove of great benefit to lovers of detective fiction the world over. In 1886, A Study in Scarlet appeared in Beeton’s Christmas Annual and the rest, as they sometimes say, was more or less history.

Doyle wrote many other works besides the Holmes books including plays, poetry, non-fiction and other fiction, notably the wonderful The Lost World in 1912.

After a life embracing family, politics, and spiritualism among many other things, Doyle died at his home, Windlesham Manor, in July 1930. He is buried in the churchyard of All Saint’s Church beside his second wife Jean.