Published in: Journal

The Sherlock Holmes Journal, Summer 2024

Author Roger Johnson

Published on: July 11, 2024

The Sherlock Holmes Journal is published twice a year, usually in June and December.

It is the official voice of the Society and contains its transactions, news and reviews, letters and editorial notes. It is also home to the most erudite scholarship, publishing learned articles from Holmesians world-wide who have something to say on any aspect of Sherlock Holmes and his world. It has been appearing without a break since the first issue in May 1952.
If you’re missing back issues of the Journal, check what’s available from the Society’s shop at https://sherlock-holmes.org.uk/shop/archives/journal-archive/. There are issues back as far as 1972, for just £3.00 each!

The Summer 2024 issue is now out!

You can download the book reviews here: I Am an Omnivorous Reader

The front cover background is the front cover of  Nihon Oyobi Nihonjin (Japan and the Japanese People), the magazine that, in 1894, published “Kojiki-dōraku” – the first Japanese translation of Sherlock Holmes. (The story is “The Man With the Twisted Lip”, though the title translates as “Begging as a Hobby”.)

Editorial: “Mycroft … And More” 
*    Our new Chairman, Calvert Markham, introduces the Society’s new membership management system, dubbed “Mycroft”, after you-know-who.

Editorial Notes:
*    At the Annual Dinner in January, Heather Owen – co-Editor of the Journal since 1984 – was awarded the Society’s highest accolade, Honorary Membership, and our Membership Secretary, Carole Markham, received the Tony Howlett Award for outstanding service. At the AGM in May, Paul Thomas Miller was announced as this year’s winner of the Tony & Freda Howlett Literary Award for his book Finding Sherlock Holmes: A Guide to Locations in England Mentioned in the Sherlock Holmes Canon. 
*   Our good friend Brian Pugh, Curator of the Conan Doyle (Crowborough) Establishment, whose books include the invaluable A Chronology of the Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, received the ACD Society’s Lifetime Service Award.
*   The complete manuscript of The Sign of the Four was among a library of rare and valuable books sold at Sotheby’s, New York in June. It realised $960,000. At the same auction, Sidney Paget’s famous illustration “The Death of Sherlock Holmes” made $384,000.
*   Since 2001, we have played – when possible – an annual cricket match against the “Gold Bats” of the P.G. Wodehouse Society. This year, in memory of the late Nicholas Utechin, our Society commissioned The Grits Trophy, a handsome cup to be held by the winning team each year. (Spoiler: this year’s winners were the Gold Bats…)

“Sherlock Holmes and Japan” by Kakuko Harada
*   “Why is Sherlock Holmes so popular in Japan, where there are so few English-speakers? … In this paper, I attempt to respond to the question from the unique angle of the history of detective fiction and Holmesian readership in Japan.”

“Avenging Milverton” by Vincent Delay
*    Holmes had it wrong – Milverton was one of the good guys!

“Inspector Baynes: The Bane of Surrey” by Bruce Harris
*   And the clever detective who outsmarted Holmes in the Wisteria Lodge business was actually one of the bad guys …

“Invoking the Devil: John Donne, Radix Pedis Diaboli and the Truth of the Cornish Horror” by Mark Jones
*    Mortimer Tregennis killed his sister and drove his brothers mad, but he was not the master criminal.

“Killing Sherlock: Lucy Worsley on the Case of Conan Doyle (BBC TV)” reviewed by Alistair Duncan
*  “If you wish to pass three hours watching this you will not be wasting your time but, unless you are a newbie to the life of Conan Doyle, you’re not going to learn much from it. You will be entertained rather than educated.” 

Transactions, by Laura Sparks and Roger Johnson
*    The 2023 Richard Lancelyn Green Memorial Lecture, The Gas Lights of London, was given by Christopher Sugg, great-great-grandson of the man who helped stage the first demonstration of gas lighting in London. William Sugg & Co. installed gas lighting at Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, Windsor Castle… and the firm is still in business.
*    Matthew J Elliott’s annual film show on the 9th November was called “Big in Japan” – where Sherlock Holmes really is big, as we know. We saw Sachiko’s Moustache, an episode of the excellent TV series Miss Sherlock with Yuko Takeuchi as Sara Shelly “Sherlock” Futaba and Shihori Kanjiya as Dr Wato-san Tachibana, followed by The Hound of the Baskervilles: Sherlock the Movie, a feature-length episode from another intelligent and entertaining series, Sherlock: Untold Stories, with Dean Fujioka as Shishio Homare and Takanori Iwata as Junichi Wakamiya. 
*    On the 4th March 2024, Mark Jones presented another film show. More accurately, we saw the The Mystery of Cader Ifan, adapted from ACD’s story “The Surgeon of Gaster Fell”, and sole survivor of the an almost forgotten 1967 BBC TV series, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The man behind the series was John Hawkesworth, who later developed the acclaimed Sherlock Holmes series for Granada TV.

“ ‘The Mongoose Munch’ – The Society’s Annual Dinner, 20th January 2024” by Trish McPherson
*    Back in the Members’ Dining Room at the House of Commons, by courtesy of Gareth Bacon MP, after an excellent meal, Chairman Catherine Cooke announced to enthusiastic applause that Carole Markham’s outstanding service had secured her this year’s Tony Howlett Award, and that Heather Owen’s forty years as co-Editor of The Sherlock Holmes Journal had earned her Honorary Membership in the Society.
     Our Guest of Honour was Vaseem Khan, author of two award-winning sequences of detective novels set in India: the Baby Ganesh Agency series, and the Malabar House historical crime novels. He is the current Chair of the Crime Writers Association, and a keen cricketer with the Authors XI — whose earliest members included one Arthur Conan Doyle. He noted that India is a pervading influence throughout the saga of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. From the very first, with Watson’s experiences in the Second Afghan War, India has a significance in more than a quarter of the sixty stories.
     The second speaker was our own Andrew Lycett, author and valued member of the Society’s cricket team. He reminded us that, although Sherlock Holmes is ubiquitous, there’s more emphasis now on the rôle of Arthur Conan Doyle, and as his biographer, Andrew is pleased to have played his part in that growing appreciation of the author.

“It Is With a Heavy Heart…” Obituaries by Jean Upton & Roger Johnson
*    Those we have lost include our long-time member MC Black, scientist, tour-guide, Freemason and bona-fide eccentric; and four notable actors:
     Richard Franklin, who played the lead in Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street at Ipswich Theatre in 1975;
     James Laurenson, who was Mycroft Holmes to Clive Merrison’s Sherlock in Bert Coules’ 2010 play The Marlbourne Point Mystery for BBC Radio 4;
     Michael Jayston, the Earl of Rufton in Granada TV’s 1981 The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax, with Jeremy Brett as Holmes (like Richard Franklin, he had a significant rôle in Doctor Who, but his most notable screen performance was in 1971 as Tsar Nicholas II in Nicholas and Alexandra, with Janet Suzman as the Tsarina);
     and Michael Culver, Sir Reginald Musgrave in Granada’s 1986 The Musgrave Ritual.

“It Seems to Me…” by Auberon Redfearn
*    “So you want to be in The Strand? People consulting Holmes with a case, or the lawless participant in one, may wish to make their presentation as attractive to him as possible, in the hope that Doctor Watson will write it up, and Sidney Paget will draw them, so they may enjoy an appearance in The Strand Magazine. Here are a few tips…”

“I Am an Omnivorous Reader”
*    Book reviews by Catherine Cooke, Herman Reichenbach and Roger Johnson.

“Wigmore Street Postbag”
*    Letters to The Sherlock Holmes Journal.

“And Finally…”
*    “The Sonorous Echoes of Perception” – a poem by Dabiel and Eugene Friedman.
*    And a cartoon by Paul H Tubb.