The Parish Magazine No. 4
The Parish Magazine No. 4 is the newsletter of the The Arthur Conan Doyle Society published in december 1990.
The Parish Magazine No. 4
THE NEWSLETTER OF THE ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE SOCIETY
ISSUE NUMBER FOUR : DECEMBER 1990
Support your Society
Arrangements are now well in hand for the first British A.C.D. Convention/Dinner which will be held at The Grand Hotel in Birmingham over the weekend of 25/26 May 1991.
Birmingham has been chosen because of our desire to make the venue a central location and thus enable our entire membership in Britain to attend without having to travel the vast distances which are often necessary with events which take place in London.
Conan Doyle was, of course, connected with Birmingham in his early days as a medical assistant to Dr. Hoare of Aston; he was a visitor to nearby Great Wyrley whilst investigating the Edalji case; he located "The Doings of Raffles Haw" in the fictitious quiet country district of Tamfield, some fourteen miles from the great Midland City; and chose Corporation Street in the centre of the city as the location for "The Stockbroker's Clerk", the only one of the Sherlock Holmes adventures which took place in Birmingham.
Birmingham has also been chosen because it is hoped that, during the course of the weekend, the Society will be able to present a plaque to the Shropshire village of Ruyton-XI-Towns commemorating the four months which Conan Doyle spent in the village in 1878 whilst serving as a medical assistant to Dr. Henry Francis Elliot. Negotiations for the siting of the plaque are presently underway, and full details will be made available in due course.
A full programme of events is being arranged and will include films and videos, lectures, panel discussions and the Society's first banquet (which we plan to make an annual event). We are also negotiating for the British premiere of Mark McPherson's one-man play "An Evening with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle".
Confirmation of the final programme will be available early in the New Year, but members are asked to take advantage of the booking form which accompanies this issue of "The Parish Magazine" to ensure that we do not have to disappoint any of them. Regrettably, we do have to place some restriction on the numbers attending, and priority will be given to this Society's own members.
This is your opportunity to show your support for the Society by attending its first major function in Britain, and to give further encouragement to those who are working hard, behind the scenes, to ensure that the Society succeeds in promoting the name of Arthur Conan Doyle throughout Great Britain and the world.
Please return your booking form, together with your deposit, not later than 31 January 1991.
Society Merchandise
In order to ease the Society's struggle to balance its budget, we need to consider producing a range of merchandise for sale to members and at the various functions which the Society will be attending.
It's very easy to charge ahead and produce the standard collections of greetings cards etc., but we need to know what you, the members, would like to see in the range of goods which we shall be offering.
Sadly, with a few notable exceptions, many of our members seem reluctant to contact the Editorial Office with comments, letters for publication, and useful suggestions. Surely, we can't be doing everything right so let's hear from you.
If you'd like a tie then, providing the demand is sufficient, we'll produce one. Likewise, with lapel badges, bookmarks, bookplates, prints, booklets etc. All we need to know is that the demand exists and if you don't tell us, we don't know !!!
So, while you're filling in your booking form for the A.C.D. Convention/Dinner, please drop us a line to tell us what you think the Society should be doing, and producing.
Finance
I mentioned in the last item, the need to provide the Society with further funds, and there is a perfectly good reason why that needs to be done.
Following subscription renewals, the Society's membership stands at 225. I suppose that this is a little disappointing after 18 months, and we could have hoped for a figure nearer 300.
Each copy of our Journal now costs, including postage, some £1,250 to produce and, with the cost of two newsletters, our total bill for keeping in touch with the membership and providing a very basic service exceeds £3,000. In addition, quite a large amount of correspondence is handled, all of which adds to the financial pressure on the Society.
It doesn't take a genius to work out that expenditure is slightly in excess of income at the present time, and I am actively seeking some form of sponsorship to enable the Society to embark on the very important work of bringing some of Conan Doyle's books back into print.
If any of our members has any good ideas relating to sponsorship, or fund raising generally, I shall be delighted to hear from them.
Rest assured that, however much we struggle to balance the books, there will be no fall off in the standard of the Society's Journal which, it seems generally agreed, has now reached a satisfactory standard of production and content — although there are still some improvements to be made.
Any good news of sponsorship will be reported in these pages.
So, please remember: ideas, suggestions, helpful comments (or unwanted bank rolls) should be forwarded to Christopher Roden at "Grasmere", 35 Penfold Way, Dodleston, Chester CH4 9ML, England.
Christmas Caption Competition
Our Sherlockian friends all over the world, are set to celebrate (?) the death of Sherlock Holmes, by way of 1991 being the centenary of the year in which Dr. Watson reported this tragic event as happening.
I thought it might be appropriate if we wished them well in their festivities, and so we'll set Reichenbach year off to a good start with a Caption Competition
Small prizes will be awarded for the best captions to accompany the following illustrations from "The Strand Magazine" of December 1893. Entries should reach the Editorial Office not later than 1 March 1991. (Winners will be notified, and results published in the June 1991 issue of The Parish Magazine).
NOTE: True to its beliefs that Sherlock Holmes was a character created by Arthur Conan Doyle, this Society will wait until December 1993 before dealing with Conan Doyle's decision to kill off his fictional master detective! (Ed.)
Notes from a Lumber-Room
by Catherine Cooke
"A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library where he can get it if he wants." (Five Orange Pips)
Such a lumber-room is maintained at Marylebone Library in the City of Westminster, a lumber-room that aims to store information not only about Sherlock Holmes, but Sir Arthur Conan as well.
We attempt, not always successfully, to collect snippets of information in all forms, ranging from books and journals down to newspaper cuttings, and from all sources. Since some of these may be outside the scope of many members, it was felt that a regular item focussing on some of them might be of interest to readers of The Parish Magazine.
There are, of course, advantages in working in a large public library (there are, of course, disadvantages as well!). One is that you have a chance to see a large proportion of the new books published in this country. One way of enlivening the week: to look for references to Conan Doyle in books not directly relevant to the Sherlock Holmes collection. One such opened what Holmes would have called "a pleasing field for intelligent speculation" : the second edition of a book first published in 1982, "Who's buried where in England" by Douglas Greenwood, from Constable.
Sir Arthur is included in this book under Authors, Playwrights and Poets. After locating the grave ("All Saints' Churchyard, Minstead, Hampshire, at the east end of the churchyard beside a large oak tree"), the author gives a brief resume of Conan Doyle's life, his education at Stonyhurst and Edinburgh, and his time in Southsea. He then refers to Sherlock Holmes as being what Conan Doyle is "chiefly remembered for", and cites The Adventures, The Memoirs and The Hound of the Baskervilles. It is good to see that he then moves on to some of Sir Arthur's other work: "He also wrote a number of historical works, Micah Clarke 1889, The White Company 1891, The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard 1896, and Rodney Stone 1896. A fervent patriot, as was shown in his pamphlet "The Great Boer War 1900, he also wrote a one-act play, "Story of Waterloo", which was enacted with Sir Henry Irving in the leading role."
Some confusion over the Boer War writings perhaps, (I have not seen The Great Boer War referred to as a "pamphlet" before), but it shows willing. This entry was not, however, what caught my eye; both editions carry the same text. No, it was the dust jacket. That for the first edition bore as illustrations on the back John Bunyan's grave in Bunhill Fields, Finsbury, and on the front, that of John Gower in Southwark. (Gower being a friend of Chaucer)
The second edition bears on the back the tomb of Edward II in Gloucester and on the front the grave of Sir Arthur and Lady Conan Doyle at Minstead. It would be interesting to know the reasons behind the choice of this grave to adorn the front cover. One rather suspects the popularity of the Granada Sherlock Holmes series, but it surely must indicate a growing awareness of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself? Some years ago, I asked in a quiz for a library event: "Who was Watson's Literary Agent?", providing a picture of Conan Doyle. A third of the respondents thought it was H. G. Wells! (and another third failed to come up with a name at all.) Might we hope that matters have improved?
Awareness of Conan Doyle does seem to be on the increase abroad. Back in July this year, the Suddeutsche Zeitung published an article "Der Doktor, der Detektiv und der ratselhafte Mr. D.", by Tom Appleton, an English freelance writer living in Vienna. The article was accompanied by a large photograph of an elderly Sir Arthur looking up from writing at his desk. The article began by focussing on Conan Doyle's Spiritualist activities, commenting on the space allocated to Spiritualism by Conan Doyle in his autobiography compared with that allocated to Sherlock Holmes, and then moved on to discuss Conan Doyle's dislike of his creation and his attempt to rid himself of Holmes. There followed a description of Holmes' antecedents and genesis in "A Study in Scarlet" and his development through "The sign of Four" into "The Strand Magazine". Appleton also looked briefly at Conan Doyle's own adventurous life, the whaling ship, his boxing interest and so on. He described Conan Doyle as a man of action rather than an intellectual, and highlighted his concern for justice. Appleton went on to argue that Doyle was a far better writer than he is today given credit for being. He cited in substantiation of this the Challenger novels, particularly "The Lost World", and the non-sherlockian crime stories, pointing out that Conan Doyle was incapable of writing anything really boring. After a brief look at Holmes' rivals and successors (Professor van Dusen, Philo Vance, Raffles), Appleton returned to Spiritualism, bringing in Houdini and Conan Doyle's comment at the end of his life that he would shortly be able to continue his discussions with Houdini. The article concluded by remarking that Holmes and Watson had already attained immortality.
Stop Press!
The Parish Magazine is delighted to report the sensational news that an anonymous benefactor has loaned two original Conan Doyle manuscripts to the Marylebone Library Collection: "The Adventure of The Dying Detective" and "The Lion's Mane".
We understand that permission has been obtained for both of the manuscripts to be micro-filmed, and that details will be made available as soon as arrangements can be made for the various films to be viewed.
The Arthur Conan Doyle Society congratulates Marylebone Library for developing its Sherlock Holmes Collection to the extent that it is felt worthy to hold these important documents, and a word of praise is also due to Catherine Cooke whose help and enthusiasm is appreciated by Doyleans and Sherlockians the world over.
Preliminary discussions are taking place for the Society's own archive to be loaned to Marylebone in order that any important documents may be readily available to members and researchers. Initially, this will probably be limited to the original manuscripts submitted for Journal publication, but from little acorns.
News from Crowborough
by Malcolm Payne
(Curator, The Conan Doyle (Crowborough) Establishment)
1990 has been quite a busy year for the Conan Doyle (Crowborough) Establishment. At our A.G.M. on May 22nd, we decided we must do something special to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of Sir Arthur's death. From this, we mapped out the basic idea of our Arthur Conan Doyle Memorial Fund. There has been interest from all over the world, reflecting the vast interest in the life of Sir Arthur. Cash does not come in quickly, probably due to the general climate at present in anything to do with finance. We feel, however, that as Crowborough has waited so long to honour this great writer, who dwelt with us for one third of his eventful life, we can be patient, and gradually work towards our goal. It has not been easy trying to get planning permission; the site chosen comes under the jurisdiction of three councils Wealden district for planning; East Sussex County, who cover part of the site; and Crowborough Town Council who give us much help and their backing.
Air Cmdt. Dame Jean Conan Doyle was most enthusiastic about our efforts, and her written backing has given added impetus to our appeal for donors. We also opened an appeal for patrons to our Establishment: our Constitution limits membership. All of these patronage donations are added to the A.C.D. Memorial Fund; in fact, any cash that comes to us over this period is all put into the Fund. We are pleased to note the many well-known names in our book of patrons, "A Tribute to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle", which is on display in The Conan Doyle Room, and this book also contains the names or titles of all donors.
News on that book "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in Crowborough"' was not looking too hopeful. The book has had a rough passage since its inception. Originally, it was to have been published by our late President, Tony yates. His sudden and untimely death meant that another publisher had to be sought. The book was accepted by another local publisher who went bankrupt four months later. We had great difficulty in retrieving the photographs, which make up a large part of the book. In late 1989, it was accepted by North Weald Publications of Crowborough (we wanted to use a local publisher if possible). A number of set-backs occurred: loss of some of the photos, loss of parts of the manuscript, etc., all of which were overcome. Of late, the publisher finds the present financial climate is not good, and he has made some cuts to his programme. The book was to have been one of those cut, but we have persuaded him to seek advertising support from the many tourist attractions in East sussex. The thought for this originated with the nearby Brambletye Hotel which has connections with Sir Arthur's writing on Holmes and Black peter. Things appear to be going well, and we trust we may be able to give you good news soon.
Much of our time is taken up with replying to enquiries on various aspects of Sir Arthur's life. These come from all over the world, and are mostly from writers. We have answered close on a hundred so far this year; all, except one, by return. The one exception asked about Conan Doyle's connections, if any, with Israel Zangwill and within a week we had sent off two typed A4 pages. Some of the questions we get are repeated time and again. Perhaps the one which occurs most often is: "Where was the actual grave site at Crowborough?" We send off a sketch map to answer this one. There are also questions on Lily Loder Symonds, her life and time in Crowborough; Windlesham and its design and alterations over the years; the setting and environment as it now exists around the house; Denis and Malcom's local schooling (Adrian is always spoken of as Malcolm locally, due to this use of his name by the staff); and even the shops which the family would have used in the village. We do not feel we have been asked every question that could be put, and one day one may well come that will entirely baffle us, and any other experts we may have call on.
We have taken a number of groups around a tour of the town. These have included Dr. Arthur Liebman and his party from America; a party of Danes from the ACD & Sherlock Holmes Society of Copenhagen; and ACD Society members Catherine Cooke and Miki Kawamura, with a friend. There have also been some individuals who have turned up in the rooms, and found them fascinating, and in some way helpful to their research. Most of these we get to know about, others remain unknown as they did not sign the visitors' book. Our original and very first visitor, Desmond Tyler, has been again this year, finding that
we have added much to our archives and displays of photos and ephemera. The latest addition is Sir Arthur's black velvet smoking jacket (one visitor tried to buy this for £4,000 saying that it would make up our memorial fund!) This garment is in fairly good trim, and its size shows just how much of a giant Sir Arthur was. As far as we can tell, it was made by a local tailor by the name of Wadey, in the 1920's. It came to us from a local history artefact collection put together by the Misses Mary and Mercy Fenner, and was given to them by the late Mr. Griffiths, a solicitor's clerk, whose wife feels he was given it by the Conan Doyle family.
We have also issued a catalogue of what we have in the room, including photos and archive material. This also contains details of how far ahead to book with us for a tour, and to have a guide to the displays. Most of the research material is available and on display with the small library of Sir Arthur's books. One can research without a guide or other help, as all is designed for this facility. The catalogue is part of the archive, and can be used to get the full potential from what we have available in the Conan Doyle Room. Copies of this catalogue are available to all who make donations from October 1990 onwards.
The Conan Doyle room is an integral part of The Crowborough Cross Hotel and, as such, is in use by the general public. It is open during the usual pub hours and, as Curator, I am available in the rooms during part of the mornings or can be called by phone to arrive within 20 minutes (if not otherwise engaged)
I trust we can be of service to any who may wish to visit or send enquiries by post (please enclose s.a.e. for reply). The fee is a donation to the Fund on typed replies and research sent by post.
For further information contact: Malcolm Payne, The Conan Doyle (Crowborough) Establishment, The Conan Doyle Room, The Cross Hotel, Crowborough, East Sussex.
That Radio Programme... Again!
"To Keep the Memory Green"
Opinion from The Stormy Petrels of Vancouver, Canada
There are some matters in the singular correspondence which forms part of the archive of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society which must, to preserve the identity of the innocent, remain a secret. How a copy of a tape containing the BBC Radio 4 programme covering the Society came to find its way in so far flung a corner of the Empire as Canada is one of these matters to which I refer, and a story for which the world is not yet prepared. Suffice it to say, however, that the tape was listened to with great interest, and with this morning's mail has arrived a letter containing the following comments from various interested parties in that country....
"The reaction of our group to the broadcast was recorded in our minutes as follows:
Result: It was the general consensus of the group that the interviewer (Mr. Carpenter) failed, in many respects, to capture the real man that was Arthur Conan Doyle. The tone of the interview was rather derogatory, and held some inconsistencies. The interview left much to be desired. Although several remarkable points were brought up, dealing with Arthur Conan Doyle as a courageous man, and a great author who deserved more attention, Mr. Carpenter failed to zero in on this.
1. Poor Interviewer
We thought the interviewer was poor because:
(a)He had clearly made up his mind in advance that A.C.D. was merely a notable popular writer, but not a great one, and a gullible eccentric. His condescending references to "station book-stalls", "fan club", his life as a "fairly simple tale", "the poor man deserved better", and his sarcastic dismissal of A.C.D.'s acceptance of the Cottingley girls' story, evidenced this.
(b)He continually seized on his interviewee's replies to interpret them, out of context, to reinforce his pre-determined opinion. For instance, Julian Symons used the phrase "notable but not great". The interviewer pounced on this immediately, but gave no emphasis at all to Richard Lancelyn Green's opinion, clearly stated, that A.C.D. was a great short story writer. Owen Dudley Edwards' very pertinent comment that in A.C.D. the juxtaposition of many simple threads produced an immensely complex pattern was, by contrast, ignored by the interviewer. Also ignored, was Mr. Symons' comment that, writing ability apart, A.C.D. was a very great man.
Although we felt that the interviewer was biased, we did not feel that he was outrageously so. We understand that he had to interview from some angle or position if his colloquy was to be interesting to his listeners. We see no need to worry. We have no doubt that the genius of A.C.D., shown by his writing and his life, will survive this broadcast.
2. The Greatness of A.C.D.
The broadcast revolved around the dissension as to whether or not A.C.D. was a great writer; was, or was not, a complex personality. We felt that those involved in the broadcast were looking for A.C.D.'s greatness in the wrong places. We believe it to lie in two areas:
(a) As a storyteller: a writer of short stories. We are mindful of the well known Irish opinion that a full length novel is merely an overlong work which the author has not taken the trouble to hone into a short story.
(b) As a man: Dame Jean Conan Doyle stated in the broadcast that her father's greatness lay in his whole life. We agree. We see chivalry as his outstanding characteristic.
3. The Role of the A.C.D. Society
We felt that the A.C.D. Society should therefore concern itself primarily with these two areas: his short story writing and his life. To study A.C.D.'s life may not be an entirely literary activity. The interviewer described the Society as a literary society; we believe it should enjoy wider parameters. In its literary activity, we believe that the A.C.D. Society should lay emphasis not only on his short stories, but on those literary pieces which address, describe and interpret A.C.D.'s life.
4. A.C.D.'s Short Stories
We believe that A.C.D.'s special genius was his invention of the technique of presenting his characters, some deliberately drawn in just two dimensions, in a wide variety of situations and environments. By doing so he enlists the reader's imagination. The reader creates the third dimension and goes on to add further dimensions of his own, as in the Sherlock Holmes, Brigadier Gerard and Professor Challenger stories the cream of the crop. The technique is sometimes given as an explanation of A.C.D.'s success with the Sherlock Holmes stories. We believe that it is more than an explanation of Sherlock Holmes; that it is part of the genius of Arthur Conan Doyle. Other writers. have sometimes attempted the method; none has succeeded. The characters of Agatha Christie, for instance, are drawn in one, or two dimensions at best. They never catch the reader's imagination. When Agatha Christie's stories are depicted on television, her characters spring to life because the reader is presented with them, for the first time, in a three dimensional format. Television therefore defines Christie's characters; it can only interpret Conan Doyle's. Doyle's characters, particularly Holmes and Watson, are already well, intimately, and affectionately known to all of us.
The technique enhanced A.C.D.'s essential genius: his ability to tell a story; to hold the reader's attention; to retain his interest. In the preface to the thirty short stories contained in his "East and West", Somerset Maugham wrote:
"No writer, I repeat, is faultless. It is well to admire him for his merits..... Chekov is extremely readable. That is a writer's supreme virtue and one upon which sufficient stress is often not laid. He shared it with Maupassant. Both of them were professional writers who turned out stories at more or less regular intervals to earn their living. They wrote as a doctor visits his patients or a solicitor sees his clients. It was part of the day's work. They had to please their readers. They were not always inspired. It was only now and then that they produced a masterpiece, but it is very seldom that they wrote anything that did not hold the reader's attention to the last line. They both wrote for papers and magazines. Sometimes a critic will describe a book of short stories as magazine stories and thus, in his own mind, damn them. That is foolish. No form of art is produced unless there is a demand for it and if newspapers and magazines did not publish short stories they would not be written. All stories are magazine stories or newspaper stories."
By this yardstick A.C.D. is a superb writer. Michael Doyle suggested to the assembled Petrels that A.C.D. was superior to De Maupassant, to Poe, to Somerset Maugham and to Chekov. This produced the following reactions:
(a) One member felt that H.G.Wells belonged in this august company.
(b) A member queried A.C.D.'s ability to hold the interest of the reader by story plot alone; he felt that even in the Sherlock Holmes stories the plot was, in some instances, insufficient to claim his continued reading of the story were it not for the fascination of the Holmes and Watson characters His point was, however, felt by others to be immaterial: both characterisation and story line can, and should, work together to gain attention and hold interest. It was agreed that we live in an age where we are conditioned to the twenty second television clip as an attention span; that in the halcyon days of A.C.D. the readers' attention span was much longer; that it was unfair to judge, out of time context, the ability of a writer to retain his readers' interest. It was also felt that A.C.D.'s ability to enlist his readers' imagination was so great that the resulting strength of his characters easily. survived any deficiencies or weakness of plot.
(c) We felt that A.C.D. gave us a special gift: he not only gave us history but also enriched it.
E. W. Hornung: An Update
Members may recall, from ACD# 3, that the Society has become involved in efforts to dissuade the French authorities in St. Jean de Luz from levelling the grave of E. W. Hornung.
A mountain of correspondence is slowly building, from which it transpires that the French wrote to the British Consul General in Bordeaux on 12 July 1989 advising their intention.
The reply from the British pro-Consul simply advised that "we have never received a reply from the families of these deceased, and it is possible that the families no longer exist in view of the dates of death.
It seems rather strange that Mr. Stephen Hornung can recall no instance of his family being contacted, and in view of the responses from the British Consul, I wrote to the Rt. Hon. Kenneth Baker M.P., then Chairman of the Conservative Party, and now Home Secretary, to bring the matter to his attention.
Mr. Baker replied on 5 November:
"I was saddened to read of the situation facing the graves of George Gissing and E.W.Hornung. I will write to the British Ambassador in Paris to see if anything can be done. When I have received a reply I will come back to you."
In the meantime, the French authorities have advised us that the legal process was set in motion in November 1988, and has until November 1991 before the application becomes final. It is imperative, therefore, that something be done before November 1991 if the grave of Willie Hornung is to remain untouched.
Richard Lancelyn Green visited the grave site in early November and advises me:
"Fortunately only a little needs to be done as the grave is in good condition."
Mr. Stephen Hornung's letter dated 19 November, advises:
"I hope that, in one way or another, I shall soon be able to find someone who can do the physical work of cleaning up the grave and maintaining it. I feel sure that the necessary funds can be raised from the family and admirers of E.W.H.'s writings."
I shall continue to monitor the situation closely, and report further developments as they occur.
Book News
Ghosts and Christmas form a ready association in readers' minds, chiefly by the recall of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". Other stories of Christmas ghosts are not, perhaps, quite so apparent. With the ghostly season upon us, however, we felt it would be appropriate to look at a few of the current collections:
THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF GHOST STORIES
Edited by Richard Dalby
Robinson Publishing (1990); 654pp; £4.99
REVIEWED BY DAVID STUART DAVIES
It was the late Roald Dahl who wrote that spookiness is the real purpose of the ghost story, adding that "it should give you the creeps and disturb your thoughts." Well, most collections of ghost stories are patchy, partly due, I suppose, to personal preferences: what gives one man a pleasantly chilling moment may have no effect on his neighbour whatsoever. However, in this well-named "Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories" there are fifty tales. Enough, one might surmise, to provide all readers with at least one or two moments of spookiness and disturbed thoughts.
What is also entertaining about Richard Dalby's collection is that old tales rub shoulders with the new, so along with modern chillers like the genuinely disturbing "The Limping ghost" by R. Chetwynd-Hayes, you have stories by Daniel Defoe, Dickens and Conan Doyle. "The Bully of Brocas Court", one of A.C.D.'s Tales of the Ring, presents that unusual phenomenon, the boxing ghost. There seem to be few surprises at first in this engaging story but, before it comes to a close, Conan Doyle presents, with that almost intuitive ingenuity that he displayed in so many of his short stories, the amusing and macabre paradox of a ghost haunting a ghost. That is spookiness plus!
At £4.99 this must be a good buy, if only to see this tale in print again, but for those with a taste for these spectral essays, there is the added bonus of stories by such other experts in the field as M.R.James, Algernon Blackwood, Sheridan Le Fanu and E. Nesbitt.
GHOSTS FOR CHRISTMAS (Edited by Richard Dalby)
CHILLERS FOR CHRISTMAS (Edited by Richard Dalby)
MURDER FOR CHRISTMAS (Edited by Thomas Godfrey)
Headline Publishers (Paperback); Each Volume £4.99
Watch out for the uniform volumes in this delightful collection from Headline. The 'Murder' and 'Chillers' volumes both feature A.C.D. with 'The Blue Carbuncle' and 'An Exciting Christmas Eve'. There are also interesting contributions from J. K. Bangs, Dickens, Chesterton, Henty and the Society's own Roger Johnson (of District Messenger fame). Good value titles, and an opportunity to find some rarely collected stories.
CHRISTMAS GHOSTS (Edited by Cramer & Hartwell)
Robinson Publishing (Paperback); £5.95
No A.C.D. in this one, but watch out for John Kendrick Bangs' superb "The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall."
THE MUMMY by Anne Rice
PENGUIN (Paperback) (1990); 476pp; £4.99
An interesting new mummy tale in which archaeologist Lawrence Stratford uncovers the tomb of Ramses the Great and unwittingly brings a havoc of destruction and desire to Egypt and Edwardian London. Well written, the story has good pace and holds the interest. Among the author's dedications is the following: "To Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for his great mummy stories "Lot No. 249" and "The Ring of Thoth".
THE OXFORD BOOK OF ENGLISH DETECTIVE STORIES (Edited by Patricia Craig)
OUP (1990); 554pp; £15.00
This collection of thirty-three stories shows the scope, vigour, and enduring fascination of the detective story, as well as indicating its importance as a barometer of social attitudes and literary practices. A.C.D. is featured with the Holmes adventure "Silver Blaze", and there is a wide range of stories representing the very best of English 20th Century Detective Fiction. It is hoped to present a fuller review in the March issue of "A.C.D."
JUST RECEIVED!!
PILTDOWN - A SCIENTIFIC FORGERY by Frank Spencer
OUP (1990); 272pp; £17.95
It was 1950 before the fragments of a skull found in gravels at Piltdown, Sussex in 1912 demonstrated conclusively that it had been deliberately faked. Frank Spencer has made an extensive study of the original documents and other available evidence, which he presents in this book. As a result of his work he is able to put forward a new case for the identity of the forger. (And refute any claims which may have been made that A.C.D. was involved.) Watch the March issue of "A.C.D." for full review.
AND FINALLY,
A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE SOCIETY ALL OVER THE WORLD
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT IN 1990. WE SHOULD LOOK FORWARD TO GREAT ADVANCES WITH THE SOCIETY IN 1991.
THE PARISH MAGAZINE. (c) THE ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE SOCIETY 1990.
PUBLISHED FROM 35 PENFOLD WAY, DODLESTON, CHESTER. EDITED BY CHRISTOPHER RODEN.
- Article courtesy Christopher Roden, founder of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (1989-2003).
