Arthur Who Wrote Sherlock: The True Story of Arthur Conan Doyle

Whether you enjoy reading biographies, non-fiction, crime books or beautifully illustrated books about books, this picture book will delight you. It is an illuminating account of Arthur Conan Doyle’s colourful life and how his world-famous fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes was born.

From his early years at home with his parents, Arthur loves stories which his Mum skilfully relates. However, he has a very sad and poor young life, going off to boarding school and later attending medical school. In order to earn some money to finance his studies, he starts joining ships intermittently and travelling across the world.

Arthur enjoys writing all kinds of stories, but publishers send them back; eventually he creates the character of Sherlock. His detective stories are loved by his fans; reading for pleasure is on the increase at this time. He finds people love reading about Sherlock every month in The Strand Magazine, but eventually he tires of writing these stories. When he kills off Sherlock and Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls, ‘Twenty thousand readers immediately cancel their subscriptions to the Strand’ (p.37). The book concludes with more details of his writing, how he brings Sherlock back to life and how Arthur strives for fairness throughout his life.

There is an interesting Author’s Note on the final pages giving extra detail and describing Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legacy. The author’s passion for her subject here is very evident.  Linda Bailey is an experienced, multi award-winning Canadian author and her skill in creating this inspiring text is striking. Swiss illustrator Isabelle Follath brings the words to life with her gorgeous illustrations: my favourite being the picture of Arthur buying a book from Edinburgh bookseller, James Thin, which leaves him without his two pennies for lunch!

As well as being suitable for five-year-olds this book would work well as background reading for any student of Arthur’s novels and short stories. I was hooked from the start of this life story and highly recommend it for schools, libraries and homes.