In Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle created one of the best known and longest lasting characters in English fiction.

The last chronological story (‘His Last Bow’) was published in 1917, but set in 1914. The last-written story (‘The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place’) was published in 1927 but set much earlier. Conan Doyle went on to write three more novels and fifty-six short stories using Sherlock Holmes as the central character. A Study in Scarlet was published in 1887, and is set somewhere between 18 (more on the author’s offhand approach to dates in a moment). These are the words that Arthur Conan Doyle uses at the start of his novel A Study in Scarlet to introduce us to narrator Dr John Watson, and to set the scene for Watson’s later meeting with the eccentric consulting detective Sherlock Holmes. There I stayed for some time at a private hotel in the Strand, leading a comfortless, meaningless existence, and spending such money as I had, considerably more freely than I ought. Under such circumstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained. I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air - or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. You can order it direct from the publishers by clicking here. This article appears in the book London Fictions, edited by Andrew Whitehead and Jerry White – and published by Five Leaves.

The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle