Recommendations from our site
“Particularly after he became famous, Conan Doyle thought of himself as a public intellectual and he wrote many letters to The Times protesting about atrocities in the Belgian Congo, arguing for divorce law reform, and trying to right the wrongs of people unjustly incarcerated. Arthur and George, Julian Barnes’s novel previous to his Booker Prize winner, was about Arthur Conan Doyle in one of these cases. Some of that public intellectual side of Conan Doyle comes across in these letters, but they are also highly personal and reveal a really endearingly winning personality. Conan Doyle is funny, witty, concerned with his family life, and he writes very entertainingly about all sorts of subjects. Above all, with its abundant annotation, the book offers a good survey of Conan Doyle’s career and some of his many interests.” Read more...
The best books on Sherlock Holmes
Michael Dirda, Journalist
