Nicholas Utechin is an Honorary member of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London and edited its journal from 1976-2006. He is also a member of the American Baker Street Irregulars society and is distantly related to the great film portrayer of Holmes, Basil Rathbone. Nick is a freelance journalist and broadcaster and was a senior producer on BBC Radio 4, working on such programmes as Today, Any Questions?, Call Nick Ross, All In The Mind and Feedback. He lives in Oxford.

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• IntroductionThe Doyle Family - Background of the authorLiterary beginnings - Conan Doyle at schoolDr Joseph Bell - Mentor and model for HolmesThe doctor who wanted to write - Conan Doyle sets up practice in SouthseaWho came before? - Other literary detectivesA Study in Scarlet - How Sherlock Holmes was bornA slow birth process - Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887Holmes described - Appearance, character and backgroundWatson described - Appearance, character and backgroundHolmes' Baker Street - Numbers and complicationsSo many choices - The search for 221BThe Sign of (the) Four - The story of the follow-up novelEvocative of its time - Conan Doyle's LondonThe Strand Magazine - Reading for the massesSidney Paget - The first great Holmes illustratorThe human side - Re-introduction of HolmesCentral attraction - Why Holmes still works todayDeduction - It's a scienceMycroft Holmes - Sherlock's big brotherMrs Hudson - The long-suffering landladyScotland Yarders - Lestrade and all the restProfessor Moriarty - The Napoleon of CrimeWomen and Holmes - What he really thought of themHolmes' literary tastes - What he reads and what he recommendsHolmes' musical tastes - The detective takes time to relaxA rare actor - Sherlock Holmes in disguiseTown versus country - Holmes, the city-dwellerExpert monographs - Holmes, the writerGreat quotations - Holmes, the brilliant conversationalistThe early plots - Short story breakdown, Part 1Holmes is critical - Watson's writing analysedIncreasing returns - Conan Doyle and his considerable earningsReichenbach beckoned - The killing of Sherlock HolmesStart of something - The Holmes phenomenonFirst parodies - Sherlock Holmes becomes a copied manThe footlights - Holmes takes to the stageSherlock Holmes - The play that became Gillette's great successThe Hound looms - The return of the detectiveIt was inevitable - The story of the real returnThe Return of Sherlock Holmes - Short story breakdown, Part 2The start of scholarship - Something new in detective fictionThe bright Ronald Knox - 'Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes'Baffled! - Holmes in the silent film eraOutput dwindles - The story of writing His Last BowHis Last Bow - Short story breakdown, Part 3Post Gillette's masterpiece - More Holmes on stage, Part 1Spiritualism dominates - Conan Doyle and his religious beliefsThe final demise - Conan Doyle's last decade of writingThe Case-book of Sherlock Holmes - Short story breakdown, Part 4Mystery stories - And yet another three?The 'talkies' - The arrival of film with soundRathbone arrives - A triumph before typecastingRathbone runs away - The Rathbone-Bruce partnership endsUp to date - More Holmes on stage, Part 2The birth of societies - With their roots firmly in scholarshipAn insatiable appetite - Holmes and modern mediaEnduring appeal - Holmes in the 21st centuryEpilogue - Remembering Conan DoyleBibliographyIndex