Complete Sherlock Holmes

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY P.D. JAMESThis book contains all the investigations and adventures of the world's most popular detective, Sherlock Holmes. From 'The Adventure of the Gloria Scott' to 'His Last Bow' we follow the illustrious career of this quintessential British hero from his university days to his final case. His efforts to uncover the truth take him all over the world and into conflict with all manner of devious criminals and dangerous villains, but thankfully his legendary powers of deduction, and his faithful companion Dr Watson, are more than up to the challenge.

Arthur Conan Doyle is unique in simultaneously bringing the curtain down on an era and raising one on another, ushering in a genre of writing that, while imitated and expanded, has never been surpassed, Sherlock Holmes is the very foundation stone of the edifice that is crime fiction, I read these stories when I was a child and discussed them endlessly with my grandfather: one of my earliest literary memories. I know all the solutions off by heart now but it doesn't matter because the brilliance of the stories lies in the relationship between Holmes and Watson, which is both funny and touching, Now, as in his lifetime, cab drivers, statesmen, academics, and raggedy-arsed children sit spellbound at his feet -proof, if proof were needed, that Doyle's modesty of language conceals a profound tolerance of the human complexity... No wonder, then, if the pairing of Holmes and Watson has triggered more imitators than any other duo in literature. Contemporary cop dramas draw on them repeatedly, Too much Holmes is no more likely than too much foie gras and no less desirable... Will delight his fans

Arthur Conan Doyle was born on 22 May 1859 in Edinburgh. He went to Stonyhurst school and then studied medicine at Edinburgh University, where one of his professors provided the model for his most famous creation. He began publishing stories in 1879 and his first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet, was published in 1887. Holmes soon became an enormously popular figure and Doyle went on to write many stories and novels about him. He also published historical fiction, plays, essays and poems on a wide variety of subjects. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died on 7 July 1930.